Brevity
01-20-2006, 12:58 PM
BREVITY on FFXI 360:
I don’t intend for this to be a full comparison between the PC and the PS2 version.
I don’t intend this to be a full tutorial of what to do in the game.
I don’t intend this to be a full grip session about the game or MMOs or new players.
Preface and short Bio:
FFXI was my first MMO and my first PS2 beta. I believe it all started about June or July of I cant recall the year maybe 2001 or 2002. I do recall not playing KOTOR due to having this. Right off the bat I felt that FFXI was a rewarding game and never had I seen so many online people in one place. Within a week I was missing out on school work, regular work, family time, and sleep… welcome to the life of a MMO addict I thought. It took me about two months to get life back in order and work out not sleeping as much. I quickly got into a LS and made many new close online friends, that would later follow me in getting the PC version early and playing together for the next two years or so. What kept me coming back to the game besides the community was the rewarding experience of working hard to get something and receiving recognition for that: no matter if it were and item or a rank or a lvl. In FFXI when you look as someone RANK say 5 or lvl say 50 no matter the job, you know nearly exactly the kinds of hell they had to go through to get it and you can respect them for it.
As a result of the fame that came with working hard I quickly decided that I wanted to become as rich in money and items as I could so I started researching and camping even NM within reason. I would team camp and solo camp to raise my chances. I also farmed higher end things with my DRK/THF. Once I got to a point where people would scan me and see that I had this or that item and say “wow dude you got to dam much time on your hands, that or you used rl money to buy gil.” I then decided to go with a job that commanded more respect at least in my eyes. I became a BST and loved it more than any job that I had ever played. At this time I was well into the US launch of the PS2 and PC versions. BST lent its self easily to my life of on again off again AFKs and me falling asleep playing, that and no need for parties. Plus you cant forget all the loot you get and don’t have to share. When I finished the game and decided to call it quits I had been Rank6 67BST/65DRK/41WHM/35WAR/16THF/20BLM/3RNG. Those are all my lvls or nearly so cus I really cant recall exactly but those are within a lvl of each of my former jobs.
I would like to note I played WOW till I got to lvl 45 Hunter. It was fun but I just didn’t get into it as much.
That said: My return to Vana'diel:
There were several times when I thought I might return to FFXI to start over or maybe buy my character back but I never did, so when I seen that it was coming to the 360 I knew I would give it a shot. This beta is so very much like the PS2 beta and I am having a blast with it. So far I like all the new additions to the game. Like the change that makes it so that trains are not going to be a bother every again. Wow, I cant even begin to tell you the times a train messed up life for so very many people.
On voice chat:
I was very glad to hear that you could use the XBL headset in the game but so far in the beta I can tell you its very nearly totally useless. You can only use it to chat in the same way it would work had you been sitting in the dashboard of your 360 and wanted to talk it but with someone. That being that as far as I can tell you can only chat with one person at a time and you have 4 dif rooms you can invite a single person too. This makes it so that you cant hope to have a match where atleast your whole team (6 members) in a single chat where you can talk about stuff while you play. I am not hurt by this since I truly grew up with this game not having voice the chat option and for me that’s fine and good even. I like that I can talk in so many different ways in the game the way it is. /sh for shout, where what you say will be seen through the whole zone; /p lets you talk to your whole party alone; /t lets you talk to a single person no matter where he is.
On wishful thinking:
Boy do I have a lot of things I wish would happen. First I hope they let beta people keep their characters. During the US PS2 beta this was not the case but I hear that during the JP PS2 beta they got to keep their characters. I hope they give us the game for free. At the end of the PS2 beta we got a copy of the game and the HDD needed to play it. I think I recall this being a 60$ value at the time, which I would think is what the 360 version will cost (though I think it should cost around what it does for PC and PS2 currently) so maybe they will do this. I hope they eliminate the monthly fee for the game or at least reduce it. Back when I played I think it was 12 something a month, I hope they take it down to 10 at least.
I hope they leave Hydra (our current beta server) up and allow us to continue to play there. This was not the case in the PS2 beta, they closed and deleted cactar. If not keeping the 360 Hydra alive I hope they make some completely 360 version servers or new servers where they don’t allow migration to. This is not the case with all the FFXI servers made so far. Every time they make new ones they allow migration, which the gil sale sites are sure to migrate to and with that they economy goes crazy and things start to cost a fortune. I know that before long any server will have some gil sale bots on them but atleast with the lack of migration it will be a longer time befor things go nuty.
My thought is that it would just plain suck to be made to go to servers already fully populated by long time players and super screwed up economies. Its hard enough just starting out in this game w/o having to be further bothered by things costing way more than they normally would. Plus its just sucky to go to servers where every NM is camped by super high lvl players that have been camping it for the past 3 years and only lose the kill to other players just like them. All that will come in time to any server but I would hope that SE would see fit to give us all a fresh start on a clean slate (server).
Will I move on to the retail version?
I am truly pulled apart by that thought for many reasons. One, I hate missing out on all the cool new games that come out. Two, I hate missing out on so much of just about everything else in life. The game is great fun but it pulls me back like no other game ever has. Three, I have in the past done so much in this game that the only “new” stuff to me I would think would be found beyond lvl 67 at least and so I would have to work for a long time to get to that point again and then beyond. The idea of coming back could be helped if I got one of my four old characters back or if we got to keep our beta characters.
On differences:
After the beta for PS2 I only played it on my PS2 for the first two weeks of getting it after SE sent it to me free when the PS2 version launched. I thought the draw distance sucked, I thought the words were awfully big at time and yet to small at others. I loved the PS2 Logitec troller/kb though and got an adapter and used that the whole time on my PC. On PC there were many things that made the game better for me. I loved seeing it run on my new PC and I loved playing other music or audio books in the background.
On the 360 my four fav things area:
One, the game seems to run great. I think this shouldn’t surprise me since it is a very old game that runs fine on older PCs.
Two, I love the look of the game on my 45” HDTV. I should say this though. The year I got my Sony HDTV rear projection, I had no clue about such items and this was the first game I played on it outside of Halo and a small handful of others. I tend to fall asleep while playing and at other times I will have long play sessions. Well this very game broke my pristine screens virginity by putting several spots of burn in on it. I got a perma-spot of signet, HP MP in the bottom right and I think even some Protect to remind me that I am a retard. There are a few others but they are none of them all that bad and I still think this game looks awesome in huge HD format. I cant wait to upgrade TVs though and get a DLP or LCD.
Three, I love that I can listen to my own music on this game, just the way I did on my PC.
Four, I love that I can still use and see my friends list while playing the game.
I hate that you cant get XBL points for stuff done in the game.
Peeves with current setup:
I don’t know who thought it would be an awesome idea to stick with the play online viewer but that’s just stupid. I hate that the game takes so many steps just to get going. If I had it my way you would put the game in and it would work just like any other game. I still hate how the friends list functions in the game. I mean to send a friend request for a new person it seems very odd in that you send them a message and in so doing you send a friends request. Its always been odd to me. Like I said this is a great game “for me” and I don’t want to go into all small gripes about the game mechanics.
Final thoughts:
I don’t truly think there is no reason for anyone who owns a decent or even a fair PC to get this game on 360 over the PC version. It will no double be cheaper on PC and you don’t have to wait for its launch. And you might even use less power per hour to play it over playing it on the 360. The game is older and I think SE is trying to breathe life into it but I hope that effort doesn’t stop with simply porting the game. I hope they offer a lot of new stuff that every lvl and job and rank can enjoy in the coming updates. I can tell you I will be playing this game often while the beta lasts but beyond that I just don’t know as of yet.
I don’t intend for this to be a full comparison between the PC and the PS2 version.
I don’t intend this to be a full tutorial of what to do in the game.
I don’t intend this to be a full grip session about the game or MMOs or new players.
Preface and short Bio:
FFXI was my first MMO and my first PS2 beta. I believe it all started about June or July of I cant recall the year maybe 2001 or 2002. I do recall not playing KOTOR due to having this. Right off the bat I felt that FFXI was a rewarding game and never had I seen so many online people in one place. Within a week I was missing out on school work, regular work, family time, and sleep… welcome to the life of a MMO addict I thought. It took me about two months to get life back in order and work out not sleeping as much. I quickly got into a LS and made many new close online friends, that would later follow me in getting the PC version early and playing together for the next two years or so. What kept me coming back to the game besides the community was the rewarding experience of working hard to get something and receiving recognition for that: no matter if it were and item or a rank or a lvl. In FFXI when you look as someone RANK say 5 or lvl say 50 no matter the job, you know nearly exactly the kinds of hell they had to go through to get it and you can respect them for it.
As a result of the fame that came with working hard I quickly decided that I wanted to become as rich in money and items as I could so I started researching and camping even NM within reason. I would team camp and solo camp to raise my chances. I also farmed higher end things with my DRK/THF. Once I got to a point where people would scan me and see that I had this or that item and say “wow dude you got to dam much time on your hands, that or you used rl money to buy gil.” I then decided to go with a job that commanded more respect at least in my eyes. I became a BST and loved it more than any job that I had ever played. At this time I was well into the US launch of the PS2 and PC versions. BST lent its self easily to my life of on again off again AFKs and me falling asleep playing, that and no need for parties. Plus you cant forget all the loot you get and don’t have to share. When I finished the game and decided to call it quits I had been Rank6 67BST/65DRK/41WHM/35WAR/16THF/20BLM/3RNG. Those are all my lvls or nearly so cus I really cant recall exactly but those are within a lvl of each of my former jobs.
I would like to note I played WOW till I got to lvl 45 Hunter. It was fun but I just didn’t get into it as much.
That said: My return to Vana'diel:
There were several times when I thought I might return to FFXI to start over or maybe buy my character back but I never did, so when I seen that it was coming to the 360 I knew I would give it a shot. This beta is so very much like the PS2 beta and I am having a blast with it. So far I like all the new additions to the game. Like the change that makes it so that trains are not going to be a bother every again. Wow, I cant even begin to tell you the times a train messed up life for so very many people.
On voice chat:
I was very glad to hear that you could use the XBL headset in the game but so far in the beta I can tell you its very nearly totally useless. You can only use it to chat in the same way it would work had you been sitting in the dashboard of your 360 and wanted to talk it but with someone. That being that as far as I can tell you can only chat with one person at a time and you have 4 dif rooms you can invite a single person too. This makes it so that you cant hope to have a match where atleast your whole team (6 members) in a single chat where you can talk about stuff while you play. I am not hurt by this since I truly grew up with this game not having voice the chat option and for me that’s fine and good even. I like that I can talk in so many different ways in the game the way it is. /sh for shout, where what you say will be seen through the whole zone; /p lets you talk to your whole party alone; /t lets you talk to a single person no matter where he is.
On wishful thinking:
Boy do I have a lot of things I wish would happen. First I hope they let beta people keep their characters. During the US PS2 beta this was not the case but I hear that during the JP PS2 beta they got to keep their characters. I hope they give us the game for free. At the end of the PS2 beta we got a copy of the game and the HDD needed to play it. I think I recall this being a 60$ value at the time, which I would think is what the 360 version will cost (though I think it should cost around what it does for PC and PS2 currently) so maybe they will do this. I hope they eliminate the monthly fee for the game or at least reduce it. Back when I played I think it was 12 something a month, I hope they take it down to 10 at least.
I hope they leave Hydra (our current beta server) up and allow us to continue to play there. This was not the case in the PS2 beta, they closed and deleted cactar. If not keeping the 360 Hydra alive I hope they make some completely 360 version servers or new servers where they don’t allow migration to. This is not the case with all the FFXI servers made so far. Every time they make new ones they allow migration, which the gil sale sites are sure to migrate to and with that they economy goes crazy and things start to cost a fortune. I know that before long any server will have some gil sale bots on them but atleast with the lack of migration it will be a longer time befor things go nuty.
My thought is that it would just plain suck to be made to go to servers already fully populated by long time players and super screwed up economies. Its hard enough just starting out in this game w/o having to be further bothered by things costing way more than they normally would. Plus its just sucky to go to servers where every NM is camped by super high lvl players that have been camping it for the past 3 years and only lose the kill to other players just like them. All that will come in time to any server but I would hope that SE would see fit to give us all a fresh start on a clean slate (server).
Will I move on to the retail version?
I am truly pulled apart by that thought for many reasons. One, I hate missing out on all the cool new games that come out. Two, I hate missing out on so much of just about everything else in life. The game is great fun but it pulls me back like no other game ever has. Three, I have in the past done so much in this game that the only “new” stuff to me I would think would be found beyond lvl 67 at least and so I would have to work for a long time to get to that point again and then beyond. The idea of coming back could be helped if I got one of my four old characters back or if we got to keep our beta characters.
On differences:
After the beta for PS2 I only played it on my PS2 for the first two weeks of getting it after SE sent it to me free when the PS2 version launched. I thought the draw distance sucked, I thought the words were awfully big at time and yet to small at others. I loved the PS2 Logitec troller/kb though and got an adapter and used that the whole time on my PC. On PC there were many things that made the game better for me. I loved seeing it run on my new PC and I loved playing other music or audio books in the background.
On the 360 my four fav things area:
One, the game seems to run great. I think this shouldn’t surprise me since it is a very old game that runs fine on older PCs.
Two, I love the look of the game on my 45” HDTV. I should say this though. The year I got my Sony HDTV rear projection, I had no clue about such items and this was the first game I played on it outside of Halo and a small handful of others. I tend to fall asleep while playing and at other times I will have long play sessions. Well this very game broke my pristine screens virginity by putting several spots of burn in on it. I got a perma-spot of signet, HP MP in the bottom right and I think even some Protect to remind me that I am a retard. There are a few others but they are none of them all that bad and I still think this game looks awesome in huge HD format. I cant wait to upgrade TVs though and get a DLP or LCD.
Three, I love that I can listen to my own music on this game, just the way I did on my PC.
Four, I love that I can still use and see my friends list while playing the game.
I hate that you cant get XBL points for stuff done in the game.
Peeves with current setup:
I don’t know who thought it would be an awesome idea to stick with the play online viewer but that’s just stupid. I hate that the game takes so many steps just to get going. If I had it my way you would put the game in and it would work just like any other game. I still hate how the friends list functions in the game. I mean to send a friend request for a new person it seems very odd in that you send them a message and in so doing you send a friends request. Its always been odd to me. Like I said this is a great game “for me” and I don’t want to go into all small gripes about the game mechanics.
Final thoughts:
I don’t truly think there is no reason for anyone who owns a decent or even a fair PC to get this game on 360 over the PC version. It will no double be cheaper on PC and you don’t have to wait for its launch. And you might even use less power per hour to play it over playing it on the 360. The game is older and I think SE is trying to breathe life into it but I hope that effort doesn’t stop with simply porting the game. I hope they offer a lot of new stuff that every lvl and job and rank can enjoy in the coming updates. I can tell you I will be playing this game often while the beta lasts but beyond that I just don’t know as of yet.