Wanted a few things cleared up...Follow

No, its @#%^ing awful leave and never come back.

But seriously, you're on a ffxi forum asking if you should play ffxi? Everyone is going to say yes. The game's been out 10 years now. Its 5th expansion is coming out in march of this year. Bringing 15 new zones & 2 new jobs. People are still playing it. New & returning players are still trickling in. If you havn't played the game in 8 years then A LOT has changed. Its much like a different game. Leveling your first job to max level (99 now, 75 then) which used to take years can be done in weeks now. After that it gets much shorter.

Read through the retuning player threads on the last few pages. Everyone seems to ask the same questions.

Edited, Jan 19th 2013 5:52pm by Telaki

As someone who played steadily all eight years, it was worth never leaving.

Definitely worth coming back!

Also I was wondering which server I should go with when I am able to log-in.

I see a lot of players complaining about lack of Player-Activity on their servers, I understand this game is 10 years old? (Could be wrong) But there should be at least some medium Pop servers out there.

Although there had been a general decline in population, a great many folks are returning to the game these days, so the activity levels are actually increasing across all the servers. The best bet is to return to your old original server, or the one it merged with - you'd be surprised how many old friends are still around or have come back. If you come to Bismarck, I can give you a pearl to a linkshell that has been taking in a lot of returnees these days.

Id imagine there will be a influx of players for the new expansion but to me the game is back to its ****** exclusive self again. But honestly Id say give it a shot, you might like it you might not. If you don't then stop playing, if you do, keep playing. I myself take frequent long breaks and play for several months. If the Expansion is poor ill probably leave again, if it is fun ill likely play some more.

Presently I do not find the game itself to be overly enjoyable, mostly because my favorite job is a piece of **** that under performs in almost every imaginable scenario...The current endgame events are catered to time limits rather than the content, as such it requires optimal set up to complete with no way to progress using less than optimal groups, because the time limit says you lose if you don't finish in time.

There is lots of fun stuff, but it gets mundane pretty quick, At present I don't think the game would be worth returning to, but the fact that expo is around the corner is more than enough to give it a courtesy try, while FFXI to me has a lot of short comings at present, its always an adventure exploring new stuff.

Game has really changed since 04. It's really not the same anymore. BLM is a good start. You will solo till 12 if you haven't already and party to 99 so BLM is a good first choice.(It will be great for farming your gear in abyssea) If you really need help with quest find a good linkshell.

You said you had no characters associated with your account? If that's right think about buying the previous ultimate collection, Abyssea Edition. Gets you acess to every facet of the game and you get a head piece that is great, til lvl 30 when its latents dont work anymore.

As for a server think about Asura as well. Many returning and new players. I am in a ls that has a few people any time of the day. Na and EU players. We would be happy for you to join.

This, I have had breaks/timeouts and long periods where I didnt touch XI yet guess what - I still play.

Some people will say dont waste your time coming back - yet they struggle to give real reasons. Its much easier to do end game stuff, much easier to get stuff done but the only issue I would mention is the fact low leveling is more solo stuff because not many party any more. BUT if your a person who duo's you will find it 10x easier then before.

I'm happy to be back (been a couple years now). I've recently joined a new shell and it's got quite a wide range of players/levels etc. I've been trying to let go a bit more, enjoy achieving small goals etc, and it's worked out really well for me.

The game is a lot easier to be casual now, although it is pretty hard to get geared up enough that people don't criticize you, but if you don't let that bother you, you can have fun.

I've found that focusing on small achievable goals is key to enjoying the game, as is doing things that may not directly benefit me. Like yesterday, I added to/cleaned up my macros to reflect new gear I've gotten recently, and duoed farmed for relic gear in dyna Xarc (finally got my monster gloves to drop!), and got a new atma. The day before I just helped someone get their Kazam keys and unlock BST and some other stuff. Just simple stuff, but low stress and fun. (The guy had been playing only 4 days and was like level 40ish blm)

The game has a lot more to offer casual players nowadays, but do join an LS. I'd take Zymunn or Cat up on their offers. There is a bunch of stuff that is pretty hard to do without someone essentially carrying you. An LS will make a lot of that stuff more achievable (like say if people are going to go out and kill NMs in abyssea - it doesn't hurt them to have you along, and you can get Atma and exp. and cruor.)

Im sorry for the person who replied to you first, theres no need for that kind of negativity and rudeness on these forums.

I just came back a few months ago after leaving at the beginning of 06. The game has tons of content to explore, new endgame battles to challenge you, level caps have been removed from most of the older missions to allow people to solo them once they reach level cap, and leveling in general is much faster and easier because most people utilize the Grounds of Valor system and party in alliances. A long time ago, choosing one job and getting it to level cap was a huge task that took months. Nowadays, other than completing things like limit break, getting a job to the higher levels is much faster. I know many people who have gotten jobs to 99 in less than a week using Abysea, but its very fast to level in alliance parties as well. Imo, just find yourself some cool people to chat with and go from there, alot of people are more than willing to answer questions and help newer players out so long as they arent busy with linkshell events.



Edited, Jan 21st 2013 10:11pm by aadrenry