Questions for JP players

[Guyverarmor]

Lei didn't get banned, he deleted his character and made a mule named Lei. waste of 3 relics, but hell he deserved it, he upgraded a ragnarok.

This is true. I talked to Micken about 2 years ago about this, said almost the same thing. He quit as well, and re-named his character, but I never found out which one it was. Only talked to him a couple of times before he did the switch

[Guppy]

I noticed that the Japanese playerbase seems to be more into Chocobo breeding and racing than the western players, who mostly have gotten their riding or digging birds and are finished with it.

First, is it considered ok to simply ask for a chococard from a Japanese player? Is there any sort of commonly agreed-upon fee or exchange mechanism (ie, is it polite to offer your own chococard in return, or is that placing a burden by giving some expectation it will be used, etc). Is there any sort of forum or site where chocobo enthusiasts gather?

Second, do they consider it rude to jump in a race against a stranger in the Racing Circuit? I suspect the three "special" NPC birds (that have an NPC "owner", and acts like a player's bird in that it takes up a racing lane during registration) that were added to the high-level races were intended to encourage people to jump in and not be afraid of offending another player (by making it impossible to tell during registration if a lane was already occupied by an NPC chocobo or a player).

Third, I have only ever seen one player besides myself on Midgardsormr running around in a Pullus Torque (Hi Thistle!). Are there a many Japanese players who have finished the Monster Race series yet?

And finally, from what I've seen so far the theory of chocobo breeding and racing seems to be more advanced than among the western playerbase. Any tips or resources you could possibly point us (by us, I mean Elmer!) towards?

[Thistle]

I noticed that the Japanese playerbase seems to be more into Chocobo breeding and racing than the western players, who mostly have gotten their riding or digging birds and are finished with it.

Seems like there are way more JP diggers out there, too.

Second, do they consider it rude to jump in a race against a stranger in the Racing Circuit?

Huh, I hadn't ever wondered if that was rude. I read somewhere that when a second PC enters the race that the NPCs's stats got knocked down, so I guess I assumed that it was a good thing to get a second person into the race. (But perhaps the stats thing is totally wrong, I have no idea where I read that.)

Third, I have only ever seen one player besides myself on Midgardsormr running around in a Pullus Torque (Hi Thistle!).

http://www.hot-hot-hot-catlove.com/f...08-ChickMe.jpg
Kweh! Eh, hi hi!

[Indalecia]

I'm raising my own KFC chain.

http://i118.photobucket.com/albums/o...823_230334.png

[Katalyn]

My question would be:

What is your favorite part of the game?

or a different version of the same idea:

Rank the following different aspects of the game in order of enjoyment.

Socializing
Ground
Limbus
Sea
Dynamis
Sky
Leveling/Meriting
Salvage
Ballista/Brenner
Einherjar
Campaign
Quests/Missions
Besieged
Crafting
Assault
Chocobo Breeding/Racing

I'm sure I forgot stuff too

That list is probably too big, maybe just pick a few or condense the categories a bit more.

[Silenka]

As for the whole 'why JP ONRY' question, I've asked a few of my JP friends this before. The answer I got was basically "NA have a different playstyle than JP, and JP prefer their own playstyle." I think it's obvious that the playstyles differ...NA are much more casual about xp, constantly replacing members and flagging even when they only have an hour or less to play. JP won't flag unless they have over 1hr, and like to marathon their xp, only playing with others when they have a long time to play (generally speaking).

It is pretty easy to get around JP ONRY as someone earlier pointed out, either by using auto-translate if you have a racially ambiguous name (one that isn't, you know, Xxstephaniexx or something retarded like that), or by what I do, pretending you're Japanese if you can actually speak the language. XD If they can't tell you're NA, they'll usually say yes.

Of course, I did have a few people bow out once I started inviting other non-JP players, but that happens so rarely that I don't worry about it.

[Whatinthe]

Too many questions. Elmer needs to sort it out or else you aren't going to get any decent replies.

Anyway, /check basically says "stares at you" while /stare is "stares intently". Slight language difference+cultural difference, most won't mind as long as you /tell them that you are going to /check them beforehand. Of course, spamming /c is a no-no, but that's beyond the scope of the question.

There's quite a few "forums", and not all of it is on 2ch. There's 2ch (ネ実板), FF11job (ジョブ板), Server-specific boards which is all over the place (鯖板). There are job-specific wikis, most of them to track down threads on the job boards and archive them. One trend that I rarely see on the NA side is the use of blogs to do kenshos. I don't blame them, because both 2ch and the job boards have small posting limit with no graphics, which makes posting detailed information tedious at best, and at risk of being archived or unavailable when the thread fills up (2ch uses a 1000-post thread system, once it fills up, it gets knocked off and becomes unavailable). There used to be a lot more Wiki activities, but because of RMTs planting links to trojans and whatnots, most of them have been locked down or just shut off entirely (Vanamon being a good example of this).

Server transfers have been problematic. But the worst usually gets found out soon enough, along with the relevant links to the original server's boards - people can change servers, but they rarely change themselves. But unless it's a real problem child, there really isn't a mechanism like BG's cross-server forum, mainly because the JP try not to post PC names unless absolutely necessary.

There was a port of Windower2 (from when the source code was available) called Windower改. I don't think it's maintained anymore. Windower itself works decently enough with the JP client, other than some pesky escape issues and lack of SJIS support on some of the plugins. FFAssist has, I belive, some macro capabilities as well as some other stuff, there's been some less "ethical" programs like ffxiex that did a lot of what Windower now does (manually autosort inventory, change bgm, distance) with plugins. There's only one real parser that the JP uses, and that's ffrep. The logging component is separate and hasn't been updated since 2005 with the author being MIA, but it still works like a champ.

With regards to choco breeding and whatnots, there is a disproportionate number of so-called "mania"-types (マニア) in Japanese society who likes to takes stuff to extreme. They also tend to eschew guides, so there isn't one persay, but I know the information is out there on one of the boards, as well as information on maximizing breeding potential. But it's scattered all over various threads and such, so if a novice were to go ask on one of the breeding threads, he'd be told to read the previous logs (過去ログ) and basically get lost. JPs can be very hostile, especially in an anonymous setting like 2ch's board postings.

As for NAs and the whole "Engrish no thanks" thing, my take on it is that the players have been burned too much. A typical JP party does not have replacements, they don't have afk for 15 min, and usually they start and end together from Whitegate and back (or d2 or tele as appropriate). The biggest complaint that I've read through various times is that the foreign players lack mannerism (マナー), and to an extent, I have to agree. So most players who've played long enough would rather not party with NA players unless absolutely necessary. But of course, you've got bigots who just don't like NA as much as Americans have bigots who don't like <insert race/religon/political party/etc>-type people.

[Whatinthe]

I have to agree, I think that'd be pretty cool.

My contribution would be

"Do you know who I am?"

Roclっていう人誰ですか?

[Lordwafik]

If you wanna know if you're known by JPs, it's easy just google search your name in google.co.jp along with the word FFXI or something . Every now and then I do it for the lulz, to see what people are saying , although babelfish's mackarels and boiled frogs aren't very helpful, usually I get the gist of what they're saying though. I know my LJ's been linked to them before, so that alone indicates they're at least that informed on LJs.

[Kipling]

This is true. I talked to Micken about 2 years ago about this, said almost the same thing. He quit as well, and re-named his character, but I never found out which one it was. Only talked to him a couple of times before he did the switch

Micken deleted and renamed himself to Zein. But he switched servers according to my friend in PB.

[Whatinthe]

Sort of an amalgam of some of the other suggestions, what is the general take on SE's handling of FFXI on the whole? Is it similar to the NA notion that SE is generally not in touch with the playerbase to the same degree as other companies with similar games? It seems like, to a degree, that there's a little more interaction with the devs on the JP side...and perhaps fewer expectations of what an MMO publisher "should" do. Could also just be different preferences on the directions the game should take.

Still, would be interesting to see if the JP think that SE is doing a bang up job, or if their views line up more with those of most NA/EU players.

The general consensus from 2ch at least is not good. A few thread always pops up after every announcement, usually to berate SE. Take for example the recent AV/Pandamonium announcement. One of the first few responses on that thread basically criticized SE for trying to "blame the player". It's a language thing, but SE's announcement in general never acknowledges that SE might be at fault, and it is mirrored in the way they "produce" these announcements. I don't think BG picked up on the language until a few pages later.

I rarely see Sage Sundi mentioned, it's usually Producer Tanaka or Planner Gondai that's mentioned, although I've seen less of Tanaka being mentioned as of late. One of the more infamous "quotes" of Tanaka being an interview that was conducted around the releaase of RoZ:

電撃playstationBB2003/08: (By increasing the number of camps in Zilart expansion, we've solved the problem of people not being to solo.)

There are a few other quotes that boggles the mind, from upper management of SE, including one from the president of SE himself, where he basically said "we've been able to cut QA testing cost due to the ability of games to be updated after launch via online". And we all know how effective SE's QA is. *cough*

[LD]

If you wanna know if you're known by JPs, it's easy just google search your name in google.co.jp along with the word FFXI or something . Every now and then I do it for the lulz, to see what people are saying , although babelfish's mackarels and boiled frogs aren't very helpful, usually I get the gist of what they're saying though. I know my LJ's been linked to them before, so that alone indicates they're at least that informed on LJs.

lol

I found out I was put on a spanish blacklist.
For the life of me, I can't remember what instance they're talking about; couldn't have been colibri, cuz it mentions nuking, but that's the only time I remember pissing people off as SCH (as a 70+ SCH, anyway).

[Tarage]

What can we do to improve relations with you guys? I would love to make more friends around the world, even if there is a language barrier. What can we do on our end to facilitate this?

[Guppy]

Here's one that I've been wondering for a long time... do Japanese players have any examples of Autotranslator abuse? You know, the equivalent of the <Mithra> <Hand> <Job>. Speaking of which, I wonder if anyone's bothered to explain to them why we think that string of Autotranslate terms is funny (or not funny, depending).

I remember something about a <cat> <Super Climb> before SE changed the wording, but never learned what it works out to in Japanese.

[Elmer the Pointy]

If you wanna know if you're known by JPs, it's easy just google search your name in google.co.jp along with the word FFXI or something

I just tried it now, and it's mostly my videos that pop up. Surfing from Japan makes all sites default to JP version, so I guess that clutters up the results. I did see one blog from a year or so ago telling a PUP blog to watch my avatar solo and ENM videos.

I do know that I was put on a French forum in 2005 as being a bad player. :D This French Bard got pissed because my party (60s in Bibiki, I believe) wouldn't stay still and he couldn't effectively sing his songs. He ditched the party and apparently then posted about the experience.

[Kaeko]

If you wanna know if you're known by JPs, it's easy just google search your name in google.co.jp along with the word FFXI or something . Every now and then I do it for the lulz, to see what people are saying , although babelfish's mackarels and boiled frogs aren't very helpful, usually I get the gist of what they're saying though. I know my LJ's been linked to them before, so that alone indicates they're at least that informed on LJs.

I get maybe 300-400 hits from Japan daily, maybe about 25-30% of daily totals, so I think LJ can be a very strong source since it seems abnormally high for an English blog.. It went up quite a bit after I posted Japanese versions for all the enmity tables.

[Omniyoji]

If you wanna know if you're known by JPs, it's easy just google search your name in google.co.jp along with the word FFXI or something.

lol I just tried that and I only got one site. Some sort of indexing site for the Auction House. It's probably something negative like seller/bidder tried jacking up the price on xxx

page 1 & page 2

[Howard Roark]

honestly the only one I can think of as a burning question in my mind is a thorough discussion of the JP Only phenomenon

Do you really find it that frustrating to use the Auto-translator that you simply don't bother?

Do you really hate NA's? Or are you like me and hate People in general; I'm pretty sure the % of hate-worthy people (read: morons etc) is the same across cultures

If you do hate NA's why?
->Assumed gil-buying?
->Increased HNM competition?
->Increased crafter competition?

or did the players we hate ruin it for all of us and you think we're all like the alla kids?



After 5 years I've pretty much given up; I've met some awesome JP players, and NA's too of course, and seen horrible players in both cultures. Have to say I'm curious to know the breakdown.

[Ahnuld]

What is your favorite part of the game?

or a different version of the same idea:

Rank the following different aspects of the game in order of enjoyment.

Socializing
Ground
Limbus
Sea
Dynamis
Sky
Leveling/Meriting
Salvage
Ballista/Brenner
Einherjar
Campaign
Quests/Missions
Besieged
Crafting
Assault
Chocobo Breeding/Racing
Garrison

Fixed.

[Not Kuno]

If you wanna know if you're known by JPs, it's easy just google search your name in google.co.jp along with the word FFXI or something .

All I got were NA results. D: Though I did see myself mentioned on Ashira's blog. Though when I type Bahamut + kuno I get alot of weird results and google translate makes no sense at all.