Player from early FFXI considering returningFollow

At this point, totally regardless of nostalgia quality (that is NOT why I want to return to a game,) I just have a few questions: Is the game still good? Is the community still alive and friendly? (I've never had an experience with an MMO community that came anywhere close to my time on FFXI.) Is it still party driven? Should I just be playing FFXIV instead (maybe wait until 2.0)?

How long ago did you last play, Kashej? And how much content did you finish?

The game is not the same as it was in 2010, and it's completely, totally, radically different than it was in, say, 2005. The heart of the game, the linkshell, is still the same, though. Experience points have swapped places with the majority of endgame content, in that you exp in an alliance of 18 and you fight most monsters in a group of 4-6 (heck, most folks solo Dynamis these days.) A few endgame events still call for an alliance, but it's nothing like it was during the HNM peak years of 2005-2009.

Game is better than it ever was before, in my opinion... but a lot has changed. There is a new expansion coming soon-ish, including two new jobs, so now is a good time to get up to speed, up to 99, and ready to explore new lands!

I started playing in Rise of the Zilart and quit during Treasures of Aht Urgan. If I had to guess something precise, I'd say that I quit in 2007. But it sounds like the game is certainly alive! Does anybody still play in 6-person parties?

Multiple ways to level.

Short Answer: People do Grounds of Valor pages. Kill X mobs of this type and Y mobs of that type and get exp, tabs and some gil. Repeat the page more than once per game day, and get exp. In GoV the exp value increases to double that of the first reward, plus you get mini powers. People gang up in Gusgen Mies, Crawler's nest and Bostaunieux Oubliettes and alliance to finish pages quick.

Other options? Parties still work as xp was doubled in feb 2011. But it's still way less faster than doing GoV or abyssea past lvl 75.

--edit--

forgot to add that post 75, almost all levelling is done in abyssea, but GoV still works up to 99, though it becomes slower due to the sheer amount of xp needed by lvl, compared to getting 200 to 250k xp /hr in abyssea.

Edited, Jul 24th 2012 1:48pm by Rumiko

I came back a month or so ago, and I too didn't really get high enough to do much exploring when I quit. I quit at 51. RDM was my main, but I got RNG, DRG, BRD and a few others right around 40. So coming back, in many ways it's been like a new game, but with a lot of familiar aspects obviously.

Currently my RDM is 61 with a lvl65 cap, and I've leveled Dancer as an alternate sub which is now at 32. Having a lot of fun.

Finding a fun linkshell who can help is also (almost) a must-have nowadays. It's easy to lvl now, but some quests still are hard to do alone (the limit breaks for example) If you start on Sylph, give Gaspard or Sylvya (my chars) a /tell!

You could solo to 30 and not see a single person. That's any server. But if you walk into Gusgen mines at level 10+ and flag up. You'll get a party.

You pretty much need level 20 gear, level 40 gear, and level 78 gear now. That's it.

Well, I've been going for a while now and leveling at a slower pace that I'm comfortable with (I enjoy a mixture of soloing and alliance play just so that I can explore because I hardly remember anything about the game.)
Another question, though - has Abyssea really rendered so much of the game content completely defunct? I would honestly like to take breaks from leveling just to go exploring with a group of three or so people. I guess part of the problem with that is that I'm level 38 and still not in a linkshell. I just... don't want this game to consist of a frantic rat race for levels in Abyssea. I'm quite content sitting around at exactly the level I'm at and farming and fishing for quite a while, and when I level I want to do it in Crawlers' Nest and not Gusgen Mines (I'm tired of that place and I don't like syncing down,) but I have never seen more than two people in Crawlers' Nest so far.

Oh no, I just turned this into a nostalgia post, didn't I? Um. Sorry. But I just want to know if there is any reason on Earth (any reason on Vana-Diel?) to go exploring and if anybody does that.

The point of exploring has not changed, but most players have already explored the world. If you follow all the quest lines, you will eventually go to every zone in the game.

GoV is what changed, and it's kinda what this whole thread has been about...