Posting this here too, to see if I can garner some interest to potential new players or returning players.
Are you tired of the current trend of MMO's? Are you sick of "themepark" games that all follow the same path. Killing 10 rats, and rarely working or playing with others, outside of instanced dungeons where the only people you socialize with are your fellow group members who would rather curse you into oblivion and get their "Uber purplez" than have a civilized conversation and make new friends.
Do you miss the days of old when these games were less about "me" and more about "us", our friends we made in game, our guilds etc. When people got together for a common goal and spent hours exploring vast lands and dungeons together. They weren't trying to apply math problems to their play sessions, they just "played" and "had fun".
Well, most of you have probably seen me post countless times "Looking for a game" playing one for a few months, and then ending up right back here, posting the same tired question and getting the same answers. Why can't I stick with a game? Why aren't any of these new games fun? I was talking to a friend today and was explaining to him my history with these games and he asked:
"Dude, how in the heck did you make it to end game in FFXI and WoW?, you don't seem to stick with any one game for longer than a few weeks/months?"
In answering his question I figured it out.
PEOPLE...
Its what kept me in WoW for 4 years, and what kept me in FFXI for 4.5. The People. The guilds I was in, the people I socialized with. In a nutshell this is what made the games fun for me. I still think at its heart, this is the appeal of MMO's in general.. despite the content.. etc.. Getting to socialize and hang out in a huge virtual world with a bunch of people you'd otherwise never meet.
So whats the problem? Well, because of the change in the MMO genre. The "communities" we once knew have been replaced with min max "Gamers" who are more interested in how many purples they have and how fast they can get through the content than any kind of socialization or adventure.
So, I know what your asking. Why the long winded post? Well, After much thought and going through literally every decent MMO to come out in the past 10 years trying to find something to play. I thought, maybe there are some people out there who have the same problem I have, and instead of trying to find a game and THEN search for folks to play with.. what if I could bring people with me to play with?
Someone else tried something similar, and while it got a huge response here.. it seemed like the biggest problem with it was that noone wanted to agree on a game and it sort of just fizzled out. So, here's what I propose. I'm currently reinstalling:
FINAL FANTASY XI
I thought long and hard about this, and this would be the closest thing to the kind of game we all remember, that still has a decent population, and hasn't change "too" much so that you cannot still enjoy the things about it that made it great. In fact a new patch thats coming will make things even better. Fields of Valor restrictions are being lifted, and mobs are becoming more soloable. This is going to improve the playability of the game to what I think will be a level that it should have always been at. Anyone who played it back just after release, knows how difficult it was. Now I think its "just right", and would be a perfect fit for a group of like minded individuals.
So I'm extending an offer to anyone who is in the same boat as me, who is looking for a game but can't seem to find anything that suits them, who may just be looking for some other folks to play with. I haven't chosen a server just yet, because I wanted to see just what kind of response I would get, but we'd be joining a highly populated server, and I'd like to form a linkshell and group up to complete content from level 1-90.
If you've never played FFXI and always wanted to, but didn't want to be all alone in your endeavor, this is your chance. Doing content together, exploring the lands, and just shooting the **** with each other. Thats what MMO's have always been about to me, and FFXI has the perfect setting for that. If you are interested, reply to this thread and add me on XFIRE.. Azmyth2k. LETS DO THIS!