[ShaneB]

I've never played, but MMO threads are always filled with wonderful stories of nostalgia and great memories.

Any MMO that can last 10+ years and have people build bonds and friendships gets my respect!

[Aeana]

I got the game just after Zilart launched in Japan, and spent an incredibly long time leveling in Ronfaure as a monk. Then I had someone escort me to Windurst from there. The boat from Selbina to Mhaura was crazy, because pirates invaded, and we got stuck in Tahrongi for hours because neither of us had a map and it was somehow confusing. Looking back on that now, I know most of the maps in the game like the back of my hand, but those first days in this game were pretty crazy.

[GraveRobberX]

land kings were so infuriating >:(

You would think SE would have realized that 1 monster carries an item, which maybe 20%+ of all server populations need, make it spawn clock on 30 minute intervals for 3 hours, then you might get the basic or hyper version, sooner or later Clusterfucks were abound
I remember when even Social LS'es got powerful they joined the big boys, can you say 100+ Laggy Ass Screen in Dragon's Aery
Almost all server restarts were to benefit JP, we had maybe 2 NA, so all HNM's were easy pickings

Fuck Dragon's Aery, also that stupid ass Vivian HNM Malboro in there, never got that EX Ring

[djplaeskool]

I got the game just after Zilart launched in Japan, and spent an incredibly long time leveling in Ronfaure as a monk. Then I had someone escort me to Windurst from there. The boat from Selbina to Mhaura was crazy, because pirates invaded, and we got stuck in Tahrongi for hours because neither of us had a map and it was somehow confusing. Looking back on that now, I know most of the maps in the game like the back of my hand, but those first days in this game were pretty crazy.

I still remember my first trip to Jeuno.
Running through Jugner and Batallia was so freaking intense.
Constantly rotating the camera to make sure I didn't get jumped by any tigers or gobs.

Also, the first few weeks of Besieged.
God damn. That was a rush.

[Toth]

Gosh, it's been a long run...

I remember getting into the FFXI NA beta and having so much fun. Had a lot of friends but we were scattered across the new servers. Once the game launched, this little BLM began a long career that stretches to do this day. My favorite memories.

1. Manaburning Divine Might :D

2. Sky farming

3. Unlocked Puppetmaster and enjoying it immensely, despite its initial gimpness (and now that it rocks, I am super thrilled. see my avatar!)

4. The entire Chains of Promethia storyline

5. The entire Treasures of Aht Urghan storyline

6. Naja and Assaults!

7. Salvage

8. Unlocking SMN and doing the avatar mini-fights.

I could go on and on. The game truly lives up to the Final Fantasy name and while it has been slower as of late, I am still proud to be a subscribed and satisfied player.

[OSHAN]

Amazing game, but there's no going back.

Man, this thread is just making me pissed off at FFXIV again.

[Izick]

Ten years? Really? That's absolutely crazy. Whether you like them or not, it's cool to think that a game can be active for over a decade. It's crazy.

It's a shame that XIV turned out to be garbage, because I was interested in the idea of an updated FF MMO, especially playing one on my PS3. I know they're rolling out complete overhauls though apparently by the time the PS3 version is out, so who knows by then what the game will be.

[GraveRobberX]

I would spread a little of the wealth around

Give 10K gil (back when game was 1 year PS2 NA wise old, economy wasn't shit, no RMT to speak of) to radom people in the Dunes
Always gave 100,000gil to a random every month, coming into Jeuno, you could tell by their gear/level they were new, helped them with Quifm

Felt nice sharing, some went to big players, but they always remembered me for hooking them up

Still had this macro as a hello:

/s Crot ~~~> (>^_^)> <(^_^<) <~~~ You
/hug
/s /huggle, /snuggle, /tickle... o.O?

[rhfb]

Am I wrong or was there a way to extract the bgm from the game files? Would I be able to pull them right from the game discs, or would I have to install the game again? This thread has got me wanting to listen to that soundtrack again.

[zlatko]

I would spread a little of the wealth around Give 10K gil (back when game was 1 year PS2 NA wise old, economy wasn't shit, no RMT to speak of) to radom people in the Dunes Always gave 100,000gil to a random every month, coming into Jeuno, you could tell by their gear/level they were new, helped them with Quifm Felt nice sharing, some went to big players, but they always remembered me for hooking them up Still had this macro as a hello: /s Crot ~~~> (>^_^)> <(^_^<) <~~~ You /hug /s /huggle, /snuggle, /tickle... o.O?

I think the player on Fairy's name that helped me a lot was Celina or something like that. She was a 50 year old woman playing and mained PUP. She soloed all the way to 75 at her own pace lol. I was struggling for $ for PUP automaton parts, and she hooked me up even though she was broke too.

When I quit, I gave her 50% of my shit, and the other 50% to my fuzzy man peach Vegetto. :) Shout outs to Fairy server.

[Kuraine]

I still remember my first trip to Jeuno. Running through Jugner and Batallia was so freaking intense. Constantly rotating the camera to make sure I didn't get jumped by any tigers or gobs. Also, the first few weeks of Besieged. God damn. That was a rush.

sogood.gif

One of my defining moments of playing FFXI and being "initiated" into the community was meeting my new LS members in San and then getting a grand escort to Jeuno, dodging tigers in Jugner, hearing the music of Batallia kick in. Finding those new locations for the first time, setting your homepoint, forgetting to set your homepoint, kicking yourself after dying.

Holy shit cobbi posts here? hello cobbi.

I do! Well, I lurk more than I post, but threads with familiar folks always draw me out. Hey :3

Edit: I have no idea where my old avatar went, but I may as well use my FFXI character for nostalgia's sake.

[Duelist]

I played an incredibly unhealthy amount of this game (play time approaching 1/3 of a year >_>) back in the day. Made a bunch of friends that I still keep in touch with these days. I miss it so much, and was really disappointed with FFXIV. :'(

I still remember this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ov3-K2aRwQY

[Hix]

Am I wrong or was there a way to extract the bgm from the game files? Would I be able to pull them right from the game discs, or would I have to install the game again? This thread has got me wanting to listen to that soundtrack again.

You'll probably need to install.

I still remember this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ov3-K2aRwQY

Damnit, nostalgia. Watched that video so many times way back when. Quite an awesome Distant Worlds remix too.

[GrumpyAlien]

FF XI is the only MMO that has ever meant a damn to me. I started playing it back during the PC launch...and have been playing off and on since then. Actually resubbed a few weeks ago to solo through as much of the story as I could due to the somewhat recent removal of level caps for mission battles etc. The BST/DNC job combo is making that pretty fun so far too.

There is something about the game that makes me keep coming back for more. It is a strange mixture of addiction and nostalgic comfort. It was the kind of game that would wake me up at 3AM to finish some quest or get just one more level.

Thank's for all the great experiences FF XI!

[pancakesandsex]

I started playing in spring of 2008. 3 months before the utterly game changing level sync was introduced.

I was sitting on the ps2 hdd for the longest time because I just had to have the neat ps2 accessories, but never opened the game. I decided to give it a shot when a co worker who played religiously pushed me over the edge. I started the game on Titan, progressed very slowly and didn't much like the game at first. I had joined my co-worker's linkshell but they weren't super helpful. Eventually I found a linkshell of my own (IIRC it was bright pink), and once level sync hit, the player base started to become a little more open to helping and making low level xp parties etc. I still think that to this day, level sync is the single greatest community feature the game has ever introduced. It's sad nothing else has copied it.

Eventually my shell on titan wound down a bit, I wasn't that high in level, and I found out there was a GAF community over on Fairy. I jumped servers and met a colorful cast of characters who have mostly left the game at this point. Lenneth/Ezlyn (Shouta) Ploid (I still have the scorpion harness and thief's knife!), Sacan (Kandinsky) HGPlayer, Teknoman, Zeroblivion, Chocobro/Bilix, and others.

Got my first job to 75 (thf) there. I'll never forget climbing nyzul for the first time with Sacan and co. Still some of the most fun I've had in the game. Leveled rdm just to do CoP (got through most of the capped content before they removed them) and eventually got merged to Sylph.

After the merger abyssea was released, people started quitting because they didn't like the new direction things were headed in, and eventually due to XIV coming out. I stuck with XI, joined a few new shells for endgamey events, made new friends along the way, and still play regularly even now. I'm optimistic about where the game is headed, it's been about 2 years of things being in flux as the rest of the game caught up to the growing pains of the new level caps. I'm really enjoying voidwatch, in spite of it's terrible drop rates, the fights are fun and profitable, and provide a nice source of once prohibitively expensive crafting materials, which (combined with the auction house merger a while back) has made crafting much more accessible and fun.

/wave if you see pancakesandsx around on Sylph

[Ozzykamikaze]

Happy anniversary FFXI!

Met my wife on this wonderful, terrible, awesome, strange game:



Not to say that I didn't have fun... but this is the main reason I wasn't scarred by the hundreds or thousands of hours I spent in Vana'diel.

[MaddenNFL64]

Happy 10th FFXI. Lots of good & bad memories. More good then bad though.

[Animekatt]

The game was soooooo goooood. I started playing in Jan '04, and stopped in Jun '09. During that time, I had a blast as my Mithra Nimeatt. Even though I was constantly broke, guys would always give me money anyway :P.

I loved my Rdm and Pup. Still do actually. I was planning on going back on the anniversary of the day I quit next month, but since I'm playing XIV, that will have to be on hold.


Edit: I wanna post pictures too!

[Darryl]

One of my defining moments of playing FFXI and being "initiated" into the community was meeting my new LS members in San and then getting a grand escort to Jeuno, dodging tigers in Jugner, hearing the music of Batallia kick in. Finding those new locations for the first time, setting your homepoint, forgetting to set your homepoint, kicking yourself after dying.

I remember my first week playing, I seen this guy light off a HUGE fireworks show in Windurst (his name was Medic, on Gilgamesh). I was so captivated by the fireworks that I convinced a complete stranger to take me and my friend all of the way to Bastok so we could get "registered with the Alchemists guild". It took us all night to walk there, between raises and story-telling. After finally arriving, my friend and I decided to check out South Gustaberg before we headed in. We took a trip up the hills right outside of the Bastok entrance, where we encountered a sheep NM called Carnero. We died almost immediately after engaging. We had set no homepoint.

I don't think we even cared about the waste of time because the trip there was a blast. We even got to meet pirates!

I still think that to this day, level sync is the single greatest community feature the game has ever introduced. It's sad nothing else has copied it.

I agree. I wonder how popular FFXI would've been if it had this feature going out of the door.

[D23]

played this game for 4 years, pretty much ruined my high school life lol cause i was so addicted to this game.

i love this, i can only hope FF14 2.0 is gonna be like this somehow

[Ploid 3.0]

Never forget La Theine Plateau.. what a game. /cheer

The first time gaffers took me out of Bastock surrounding areas I was abandoned at dunes because I was thf and too low level. I tried to find my own way home and got lost in La Theine. I didn't mind though because I was charmed by its awesomeness.

I saw a dead guy at this crystal and it kinda creep'd me out.


Me getting my Neogaf PS3 users shell. At first there was segregation, PC guys were seen as evil overlords.

[zlatko]

As for a sad memory... I forget how young I was, but this was somewhat wild west times for MMO's and account privacy, etc. It was for me anyway. But basically a guy wanted to trade accounts(his 68 some taru thief, my 50 some hume drg), and I was like oh sure yeah that'd be awesome.

Trade worked out great. A month later I got homesick for my Hume, and tried to see if maybe he'd want to trade back. Someone else had the account now, but they were up for it IF I also got them that BLM cloak that was hot shit back then.

I wasted all the gold, and he was like okay trade to this character.(different character he logs onto) Traded, then he never gave it to me lol. I was broke, no gear, and no means to earn $ at that time with any of my classes. He sent a /tell laughing at me, then put me on ignore.

Learned a heavy lesson the wrong way. Quit the game and deleted my character. Didn't come back till Aht urghan launched.

[Toodles]

Happy Birthday Vana'diel.

You were the best and the worst thing that ever happened to me and you taught me an awful lot about myself.

[ronito]

Yeah I don't know why but FFXI has a special place in my heart despite having restarted 3 times in those 10 years and quitting each time after a few months.

Really if FFXIV had just gotten what FFXI did right and fixed some of the things it did wrong I'd be all over that.

I think of all the MMOs out there FFXI had the best locations and atmosphere. However, like I said I quit three times and each time was for a different time

The first time I quit was because it was just too difficult to control/start off unless there was someone there to help you (which back then there were plenty of people but few willing to help). I didn't make it very far at all (I think I had just gotten the subjob and then had to restart a new job and gave up).

The second time was a few months after the first quitting. This time I researched and had a good linkshell to help. Had fun, got my bard job but eventually I got tired of the fact that I always had to have someone help to do anything. I was tired of playing on other people's schedule. So I gave up.

The third time was just last year. I found they had fixed a ton of stuff. You no longer required a slew of people to do everything. But I found the world just empty. While I was just sitting there trying to level up my little job everyone was at level 50+ in Jeuno. Everything was just deserted.

Even now though I wish I could go back to an experience like FFXI.

[Rokam]

Still has my favorite class in any game ever, Blue Mage. The entire concept was great.

[muu]

IRL social life went out the window, but I had a hell of a time. Got me visiting ogame@2ch for hours every day (and still do, since it's a general forum disguised as a FF11 one). Also have some strange friends in Japan that I can count on now whenever I visit -- strangely enough, most of the people I still contact are not the people I played with but the folks that were debating on random threads. If it weren't for this I wouldn't have gotten into idolmaster, I would never have gotten a Xbox and would probably be a straight up PC gamer.

Not my favorite song (that'd be the Promathia fight by far) , but this is what I remember every time I think of FF11's music:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NEZB-cNpk2U

[jiggle]

so who will go back if they ever release a portable or HD version of the game >.>

[Conrad Link]

In a way, I'm probably glad XIV didn't grab me as much as I hoped when I got it at launch.

Its beautiful, but just didn't enjoy playing it. Plus I'm a fully well set in my console ways these days. If they ever get that PS3 version out I promised myself I'd give it a go and see how its grown.

But I say its a good thing it deterred me at launch because I was so badly addicted to XI, I probably can't afford to fall into that sorta thing again lol.

Life has changed, I don't regret the fun and the precious memories but I can admit now its easy to see I let it affect and consume waaaay too much of my life at the time (and money) than I should have. Some sort of balance was needed, but yea, addictions don't work like that. I like to just focus on the good memories now-a-days, cause there were so many.

But I doubt I'll ever play a MMORPG like that, in the same way again.

So in that sense FFXI will just be even more special in my memories I guess. :)

[Darryl]

so who will go back if they ever release a portable or HD version of the game >.>

I'll go back if they release a rollback server where they start the game out fresh and slowly add-in the expansion content. I've tried going back multiple times already and I never get the magic back. I don't think portable or HD would change that.

[Kokonoe]

They stated that it'd be too much work to make everything HD a few months ago. Although, it would cause me to check it out for a month. I eventually will return to FFXI to complete Rise of the Zilart, San d'Oria Missions, and Wings of the Goddess. I completed all the other stories, though.

[muu]

I remember my first week playing, I seen this guy light off a HUGE fireworks show in Windurst (his name was Medic, on Gilgamesh). I was so captivated by the fireworks that I convinced a complete stranger to take me and my friend all of the way to Bastok so we could get "registered with the Alchemists guild". It took us all night to walk there, between raises and story-telling. After finally arriving, my friend and I decided to check out South Gustaberg before we headed in. We took a trip up the hills right outside of the Bastok entrance, where we encountered a sheep NM called Carnero. We died almost immediately after engaging. We had set no homepoint. I don't think we even cared about the waste of time because the trip there was a blast. We even got to meet pirates! I agree. I wonder how popular FFXI would've been if it had this feature going out of the door.

Mine was with fishing. Fishing for moat carp had me addicted and that was pretty much all I did. I convinced a couple friends that I met ingame to go w/ me from Sandy to Windurst for the fishing exam -- it was a miracle that we got through Valkrum unscathed on the way over. We set homepoints every time we met a guard, meaning we had to walk to, and walk back, all the way. After all was done we were trodding it back through la theine when my friend (who was like a lv10 WAR) just dies instantly. We were all WTF? And then saw Lumbering Lambert right on our tail. First HOLY FUCKING SHIT moment in that game, for sure. We high-tailed it out of there, the WAR took another day to come back since he was HP'ed in buburimu.

[Munba]

Some sceneries in my hd,














Beautiful world. Hope xiv will reach this one day..

[Conrad Link]

Despite the annoying flaws the game had/still has, it did improve dramatically over the years at times too.

Eventually lol.

Things like lvl-sync would have done wonders a lot earlier in life, I can only imagine what it could have done for things.

Those kind of updates would be added and its like 'WELL DUUUH', we'd call it a why hasn't it been like this all the time??? or lol can't even imagine it back the other stupid ass way now cause this makes so much more sense updates. :D

[zlatko]

Some sceneries in my hd, Beautiful world. Hope xiv will reach this one day..

It already has if you want nice looking EMPTY areas.

FFXIV needs more content within those areas, and maybe more NPCs scattered about to feel it lived in.

[Toodles]

I feel some good was done with the later updates of the last few years, but also a lot of damage has been done. FFXI today is not the FFXI you remember.

[bardia]

One of my favorite games of all time. I played from NA beta up until 2008 or so. I was really into hnming, I remember when all the NAs were first getting into it on Midgard, we'd all sit in behemoths dominion and spam provoke for 3 hrs straight :lol this was before people realized they popped in intervals. I miss being a kid and being able to invest so much time into a game.

Edit: just read through this thread, funny seeing people from rzero, game over, PO etc post on gaf too, makes me nostalgic.

[Fine Ham Abounds]

10 years? Man am I old.

I miss my SAM/WAR Taru sometimes. Don't think I have any screenshots still around.

[Apostate]

I haven't played this one, but it's always scary to think that 10+ years have passed since the PS1 era FF games...

Edit: I see it's on Steam. How much is the monthly subscription fee nowadays?

[gibut]

Me and 3 of my college buddies started playing this game on NA release, which i do believe was October 2003. We had such a blast meet two other guys in game so we pretty much had a static 6 all the way to 75. Everything in the game had such an epic feeling. First time you entered a new zone it was just great checking out the area seeing the new type of mobs. We were the first NA 75's on our server and hitting 75 seemed like such a huge accomplishment.


One of my fondest memory of the game was our first Serket pull all of us had pretty recently hit 75 so we knew it would be a tough fight. We out pulled all the Japanese players and gold farmer that were there. My roommate was in class so i kited Serket around for 10 mins as he ran back from class. We got the and V.claw which sold for 4.5 mil at the time. I dont ever remember being so happy in game before.

[Woody Invincible]

Me and my OP RNG/SAM, dominating ballista. God damn, those are my best memories I have of my life.

[Sgblues]

FFXI....I have played this game since the pc NA launch, I've made many friends, lost a lot of them, made many enemies, lost a lot of them also and I can honestly say playing this game for the last 10 years I've changed a lot, while I had a lot of optimism when I first started, I had become rather cynical and distant, rarely trusting many people since through first hand experiences you learn and see how an online community can be and the many strengths and vulnerabilities anonymity can offer you whether you want them or not.


But I can say that despite it all its been one of the most fun games I've played and also despite the many who, would try to bring down the community I wouldn't change it for anything, sure some things I could have done differently/handled another way but what's done is done and I have no regrets anymore.

I officially retired from this game on the 20th of April and I did it on my own terms with no unresolved issues, I would have posted screen shots but I ended up deleting all of them(oh well).

Anyways: Sgb of Caitsith then Ragnarok(server merge) tarutaru forever hehe.

[Remus]

Me and my OP RNG/SAM, dominating ballista. God damn, those are my best memories I have of my life.

Dat Sidewinder.

[Dragoon En Regalia]

I only got to play for a little bit, mostly just riding out from Bastok across Gustaberg, through Konschat to get to the Dunes and lvl grind. But now? I really feel like I was missing out as a kid. My sister soon took the family PS2 into her room for her own vile experiments, most of which included the usual grind in Valkurm, before the game-defining trek to Jueno. She played a lot, and I eventually just couldn't play it at all—some house drama about that!

But I really want to revisit that day and age, just so I can relive the best days of the only masterpiece game Squaresoft's ever made IMO (the rest range from great to abysmal). Fact is: it was far more substantial and well-realized than PSO at the time, and it's still one of the best MMORPGs crafted for a console and, perhaps, for a PC. The PC strategy guide was a favorite read of mine back in the day, though it only covered the base game and none of the expansions, yet I might never know what it was like to conduct great mission runs with the expansive linkshells of old. Here's hoping that dedicated players will figure out a way to host servers after the inevitable server-killing that Squeenix is going to carry out.

What an experience.

[Ozzykamikaze]

I only got to play for a little bit, mostly just riding out from Bastok across Gustaberg, through Konschat to get to the Dunes and lvl grind. But now? I really feel like I was missing out as a kid. My sister soon took the family PS2 into her room for her own vile experiments, most of which included the usual grind in Valkurm, before the game-defining trek to Jueno. She played a lot, and I eventually just couldn't play it at all—some house drama about that! But I really want to revisit that day and age, just so I can relive the best days of the only masterpiece game Squaresoft's ever made IMO (the rest range from great to abysmal). Fact is: it was far more substantial and well-realized than PSO at the time, and it's still one of the best MMORPGs crafted for a console and, perhaps, for a PC. The PC strategy guide was a favorite read of mine back in the day, though it only covered the base game and none of the expansions, yet I might never know what it was like to conduct great mission runs with the expansive linkshells of old. Here's hoping that dedicated players will figure out a way to host servers after the inevitable server-killing that Squeenix is going to carry out. What an experience.

That was poetic. I felt a little resentment towards your sister as well...

[Yuripaw]

Seeing the screenshots for this game again are making me so nostalgic. I still can't believe this is a 10 year old game. Sure some of the textures and the overall look of the game is probably dated, but it's still such a beautiful world just to look at and explore.

[Mattakuevan]

Gah, everytime I watch videos like these I want to resub.

But I stop because its not the same game anymore. FFXI as I loved it died a few years ago when the cap was raised...

Oh well! Wonderful memories still.

I'm really hoping TERA can fill the void.

[Yuripaw]

Gah, everytime I watch videos like these I want to resub. But I stop because its not the same game anymore. FFXI as I loved it died a few years ago when the cap was raised... Oh well! Wonderful memories still. I'm really hoping TERA can fill the void.

Have you played TERA yet? how is it?

[Mattakuevan]

Have you played TERA yet? how is it?

Yeah I'm playing it. I'm level 14 and so far I'm getting the same feeling I did when I started FFXI back in 2003. YMMV but for me I'm thinking it's going to be worth sticking with for the long haul (that could all change obviously since I'm only lvl 14).

The music isn't as good, but the zones are amazingly vibrant and full of life.

[Riposte]

Funny seeing Midgardsormr people here. I wish I had a better team for Ballista Royale. Cool event. Too bad Brenner never caught on (I managed to host 18 vs 18 battles on the launch day lol), nor did SE bother hosting anything like that again.

[sky]

Some sceneries in my hd

Nice pics...
There's something so pleasing and intriguing about the geography of Vana'diel.
The balance of elements just feels so right.