Geez...what happened to the game?Follow

*warning* long post/rant. If you don't want to read a long post/rant, click "Thread Index" above or below this page.

It wasn't until I took a step back and decided to treat this game more like a game and less like a job that I realized that far too many of the people on our server have completely lost touch with reality.

I got tired of farming for gil to equip my RNG post lvl 60, so for the last couple of nights, I've been trying to lvl NIN to 37 (from 34) so I can use the scroll of Utsusemi: Ni that has just been taking up space in my mog house since I got it. I thought it would be a fun break...instead of needing 20k exp to level, I only needed 6.2k exp. I've been known to pull down 20k exp in less than a few hours, so it should have been no big deal, right? Wrong.

Every single group I've joined since then has involved one aspect of selfishness or another. Some were not bad, like the group I joined tonight where I waited for an hour for it to fill up so we could head out. The leader eventually disbanded because so many people who said they would join logged out without notice and didn't come back (selfish).

I got blind invites, and when I responded with a pleasant "Hello ^^" I got no response until I finally told them I wasn't in the habit of accepting blind invites and had to decline. (selfish)

My next invite came from someone who told me I would be replacing them in Garlaige. So I spent 1k gil on a chocobo to get there, /bow'd and /wave'd to them as I ran past, found the party I was supposed to join, only to be told the person who invited me knew full well the party was disbanding anyways. (selfish).

So I hung out at the entrance to Garlaige with my seek flag up like a beggar until I got another invite to a party in Crawler's Nest. I accepted, and used up some Silent Oil and Shinobi-Tabi on my way back to Jeuno so I could grab yet another expensive chocobo to CN. When I arrived there, I was disappointed to find that the one thing they neglected to tell me is that they were being powerleveled. (How in the BLUE hell, with all of the information circulating about this game, can people not know that if you're inviting others to a PL group, you have an OBLIGATION to tell them beforehand that that is the case?). I warped out after 3-4 fights when I realized that the PL wasn't a minor convenience, it was a necessity, as the fights we were engaged in would have otherwise killed us all.

Then I come to these forums. Our home forums. The Siren Server forums. And it's like a god damn soap opera. So and so is stirring up crap because so and so is harassing him and his girlfriend. Exodus is tired of the BS associated with trying to be a positive influence in this forum. Everyone wants someone else blacklisted because they are mean and nasty and forgot to brush their teeth.

All I wanted to do tonight was log into the game, have some fun, and accomplish SOMETHING that could justify my time. The party I spent an hour in before it disbanded because they couldn't get 6 members? I had to ask them *4* times where we were going before I got a roundabout answer. They were either not talking at all, or were talking in /tell or LS chat, and completely ignored me.

Get a damn grip.

I used to be a bit ashamed of my tendency to be a cantankerous bastard from time to time when things weren't working out...disfunctional parties, slow-ass exp, or trash-spamming morons...they all got a piece of my mind.

Now that I've resolved to just chill out and make sure that above all, I (and the rest of the people around me) are having fun, nothing has changed. I still have to be a hardass to get people to remember this is a game and to just shut up, stop snivelling, and either have fun or leave.

Something tells me that the person who is going to have to leave since they can't have fun is likely going to be me.

If that's the case, that's very unfortunate. I don't know how many of you have checked out trailers and previews of the newest "competition" coming out, but it all looks pretty week. FFXI is still hands down the best produced and best supported MMORPG on the market.

The 14 year olds who don't understand the concept of "due process" get choked when the GMs in FFXI don't ban suspected gil farmers on the spot. But then they get uppity when the same GMs haul them to jail and tell them that the crude name they gave their mule isn't acceptable.

Have you even seen the crap coming down the pipe from north american developers? WoW looks like fun until you watch the combat sequences. It's like Double Dragon on a two dimensional field.

EQ2 looks like the developers got bored mid-way through. And Guild Wars? The new MMORPG with no monthly fee? Clumsy as hell. (I just tried the demo).

FFXI is not perfect. It's a freaking video game with an online chat-room built in, not an attempt to create Utopia. The NA community, however, is starting to resemble a hallway in a highschool. Rumors, drama, bullies, idiots, whiners, and immaturity are starting to abound in a game where the original players (our JP counterparts) are 10-15 years older than the NA norm, and it's really starting to show.

Hell, I've even checked out standalone RPGs. You know, the big names like Baldur's Gate and Morrowind. Both look like Super Mario Brothers compared to FFXI. I've watched the gameplay trailers.

Do any of you even understand how priviledged we are to be able to play an RPG (online or otherwise) where the developers actually invested the money into motion capture and making the entire game as visually appealling as was possible with the platform they originally launched it on?

Does anyone on our server actually play the game for the sake of a fun challenge with new things to see around the corner and new areas to explore?

I spent a few hours the other day running around Oldton Movalpolos, checking out farming options and working on a quest there. A couple of times I thought it would be more fun if I could find a couple of people to join me and take on a few things that were too risky to handle solo. Do you think I could find a single NA player to join me? (I have nothing against JPs, but it's a little more fun when I can communicate in my native language and be understood).

None. Everyone has one of two mindsets...make gil, or get exp. Screw everything else. And yet, they complain when the gil or the exp is slow. They talk about how sick they are of the "grind". But when an opportunity comes up to do something different, fun, and rewarding, if there isn' 6k exp/hour or 50k gil/hour in it, it's like they're wasting their time.

Where did the fun go? When did people start to forget that rush of excitement the first time they stepped out of their home city to fight something, wondering what it would be like? Where did the excitement go that came from zoning into an area where you'd never been before?

It's almost like everyone is focused on leveling higher and higher so they can fight HNMs and gods so they can get better gear to be better at fighting HNMs and gods...nevermind the fact that I ran into a 57 RNG not too long ago that didn't know that the ferry from Selbina WASN'T the only way to get to Mhaura.

Why do we level if the only reason we level is to get better at leveling?

My rant is done.

If you run into me in-game, just understand this.

I'm a 60 RNG/NIN (currently working on NIN) who wants to have a fun time with a friendly group who knows what they're doing and walk away feeling like the time I spent farming to buy the tools I need to do my job was worth it.

Is that so much to aak?

amen.
^^

well said :)

Very nice post Aruelius. It makes me wonder though, how exactly do people who are always rude, or who always blindly invite people or who generaly make people feel unwelcome (generaly in parties) progress through the game? In general I dont invite someone that in the past has offended me or is known for being a bad player, am I the only one that does that? If not, then how do they get along in the game?

This is a social game, people who always whine, or always insult people, or are just down right not nice need to realize that this game involves other people too. . . real people. I know that if I acted the way some do in game in real life I'd be fired from my job, my friends would hate me and life would be miserable. Maybe thats just how some people like thier lives, where everyone dislikes them becuase they dont know how to behave and are laking the mental capacity to figure out why. Those people should go find themselves a game that doesn't require interaction with other humans and quite ruining the game for those of us who do appreciate that we all have different personalties but can still get along. Of course, I imagine people that are lacking in proper social skills flock together, just like they do in junior-high school. Maybe thats how they progress in the game.

Also Aurelius, I feel your pain in the aspect of parties. When I was a RNG (long long ago lol) I absolutely hated the way that people would blindly invite me, not make me feel welcome and then expect me to burn all the gil I made while farming to help them level. Yes I know it was my job, and selfish o my part to think that, but c'mon, RNG farm the most in the game and people just expect you start the game off loaded. I once had a person laugh at me after dieing several times that I shouldnt even have joined the party, becuase I wasted y time in the group, and the time spent farming just to join...man I just noticed how selfish I sound lol.

Anyways, the point I'm trying to get to is that everyone really needs to strive to be nicer to EVERYONE else. It really does make it hard to enjoy the game when everyone has thier own personal agendas and dont want to help others or just go exploring with others as Aurelius mentioned. I'm sure I'll catch some flack for this but who cares lol. With that said I think I'm done now, sorry for making you read my little rant. Also, if you ever see me in game, send me a tell and say hi, I'm always up to go do something if you need it and I'm not terribly busy. =^.^=

I gotta agree with you Vegetacron.

I have a new character on another server, and I'm having a lot of fun with that. It's a nice break from the usual slaving away all day to get that next level.

Well... I was just about to quit this game about month ago, rather than buy the expansion pack. It was, as you guys said, too much like a JOB.

What I've done is take a step back, and not take the game so seriously. It's not a race to lv 75. This game will be around for years, you DON'T need to reach it's climax next month ^^. Take the pressure off yourself, play at a slower more comfortable pace, and whatever happens happens.

It is unfortunate about the growing selfishness in the game, though. Too bad we can't really do anything about it, except maybe try to teach these people the right way to play. I remember at first, not knowing what I was doing... And I was taught the way of things by more experienced players. I took the advice in stride, and didn't see it as a slap in the face for not knowing everything.

Maybe we should take it upon ourselves to show those less "knowledgeable" players, and show them how it should be done. And if they aren't willing to listen, then at least we tried. In the end, we as the players are responsible for the game's environment.

Edited, Thu Nov 4 05:31:01 2004 by SniperEdain

I really find it irritating when people use the wrong negative adjectives to describe a situation.

The word "Selfish" really doesn't describe any of those situations. Most of them could be said to be rude or asinine, but none were selfish. Just my little mini rant on his rant.

Really though I see no REAL purpose to rants. Yes they do blow off steam and are a nice coping tool, but they never actually accomplish anything.



I've been called an elitist, and I know those people simply don't understand. I simply like to enjoy leveling, rather than trudging through it. +1 gears makes the game more fun for me, and everyone else in my party. No of course +1 gear is not neccesarry, but I dearly like it when I see other players with it, it makes the game more enjoyable. I find that there's less arguing and more fun in parties where everyone is well equipped. In regular or poorly equipped parties I hear people saying to one another stuff like " man you don't have dark staff" and "You should really get some snipers." While in +1 equipped parties there's things like "Wow did you see how much I hit that for?" and "Awsome, I didn't think we'd be able to take that down."

It seems players like to stereotype +1 equipped players as "elitists," "snobby," or "arrogant." If I turn down your invite because you have poor gear it's not because I'm snobby, it's because I want to have fun, and parties that constantly yell about the tank not holding hate and the like aren't fun.

But isn't that selfish? This party isn't fun. No one talks. This doesn't compute with my latest epiphiny on the social, thus they are wrong and I am right. You leave and forsake the party because YOU didn't find it fun? What if one of those members was enjoying themselves in that party reguardless of the silence. Was it fair to him? What if you were the only healer or tank they would have been able to use and the party was forced to disband because YOU weren't having fun.

Aur... The game hasn't changed its just that you have gotten used to the environment now that you have been on the game longer you will only see it worsen.. People in the server are becoming higher lvled and are having to deal w/ all the "stressful quests" such as AF gear... and dlvling is becoming a bigger hassle b/c of the XP loss... I'm not arguing w/ you at all but am merely saying look at it in these perspectives...

I wish people wouldn't change but hey gotta live w/ it.. I know I still play like I am a noob b/c I am one =P... A lot of my friends I had when I first started this game I am no longer friends w/ b/c they let the game sour them and lvl grinded.. My suggestion to people is to go and and try crafts instead of constantly level grinding.. dont burn out!
Well im out-
Art