I still play from every now and then.  I know when you talk about this game out loud to others they really give you shit about it but I must say though, there is something about this game that I still love.  Maybe it's the players that you get along with so well.  I've played many other MMO before and even WoW but I still find that FF11 offers a lot to me.

I was thinkin about getting back into it.

I played FFXI for over 1,600 hours and even though I had quite a bit of fun, I was also quite frustrated during most of it. It's a very demanding game, especially in the higher levels. If you could do more things solo, I would have enjoyed it more. Having to rely on everyone else to help you all the time is difficult.

I gave up with FFXI in January 2006 - the economy on my server had fallen to pieces.  I'd taken a break for a few months, and upon my return, the prices for everything on the Auction House had sky rocketed - the Gil I had in my virtual pockets was now only worth a fraction of what it was when I'd last played, and even the decent gear I had hadn't quite moved in line with the rest of the stuff I was aiming towards, or used on a regular basis, and it was just a little too much.  Square should've done something about the abuse that the AH saw, what with the campers and farmers.  It was time for me to finally hang up my Lu Shang's!

I can relate to what Schadenfreude says with regards to the demands of the game - it's pretty much essential for you to party past level 9 or so, unless you're a Beastmaster.  Not sure about the recently added classes, as I never got to experience them.  Just a shame you couldn't make more progress on your own, but then, what kind of place would the servers be then?  I much prefer the instances that WoW has to offer, and I suspect FFXI could've benefitted from a similar implementation along it's own lines, or at least do something about any drops that were camped.

It pretty much took over my life at one point, and it's destroyed one marriage that I've known about. Despite it eating up 2480 hours of my life (don't ask how I know!), I still look back at it with fond memories.  The early days were the best, the thrill of adventuring in new places with a group of new players.  Nothing's quite filled the void since.

I do currently still play actually. The economy shambles that so many people bring up to rip the game apart has been remedied with the institution of the Special Task Team early last year.  The economy is very much back at the level of the early days around the North American launch. Did it come too late? Yes. But they have at least showed a proactive role instead of just sitting back even more and watching the game go belly up.

A lot of the the things added with Wings of the Goddess have helped make the game much more forgiving, and fun. Campaign (introduced in Wings of the Goddess) is a great way to gain exp/limits if you are not in the mood to party with others. Does it beat a standard party? No. But it is a nice alternative where there was once none.  The new Zeni Notorious Monster system allows for NM fights whenever you want them, just trade the easily acquirable required item, and there's your NM with items droppable you'd actually want.

Yes, the game still has the higher barrier of entry, and it is rough starting out. It was like that for pretty much everyone at the beginning, but Square Enix has been trying to make things better, especially recently. 

I know people wish for more solo content, but I personally enjoy the community aspect of FFXI, and that's why I very much enjoy it over WoW.  Well that and the great story, and the challenge an "old school" MMO like it presents.

i never saw any community aspect of FFXI. i saw people run by or stand. thats it. when you'd find a group, people never talked. some awsome community there.


i prefer the solo content of newer mmorpgs. if i can hurry up and clear my backlog then i could get back to age of conan.

Most groups I have been a part of have lively conversation, and everyone has a good time. By "community" I wasn't speaking of everyone talking aloud everywhere and such, I meant the the bringing of people together to achieve goals.

And I personally do not get the want of so much solo content for an MMORPG.  I can understand a little bit of soloable stuff, but if you want to do so much alone, why are you playing an MMO?

I still play FFXI from time to time, but it's been mad long since I last played.

I have a Mithra (Kitty)
Lvl. 63 Monk
Lvl. 55 Warrior
Lvl. 50 Dragoon

... and many more.