Answers from JP Players

[fishstix]

This was awesome and was cool finding out their reasoning on stuff instead of just "NA's all suck and I hate them all," like their wanting to be able to relax and speak japanese instead of strain to speak english. I joined an all Russian sky shell once for kicks, I didnt know anyone on the server and he came to me being friendly, so I thought I'd have some fun helping them out. It wasn't terrible, but the language barrier did suck and ended up not really being fun.

[Howard Roark]

read pretty much every word, most interesting FFXI related read in.. actually possibly ever haha; been generally avoiding advanced

kudos sir elmer

[Aksannyi]

I loved reading that entire thing. It was really fascinating. I really wanted to respond to some of them, though, lol.

[Spira]

Yah. I'm with the JPs on this one <_< Go /nin and let me not be on edge the whole time curedumping. I don't mind so much on DRG, since they can jump and not take dmg for a while, but drks.. bleh, especially when they stick every JA on and then throw on all the black gear they can find.

I quite agree on this too... the only DDs i feel that dont need to sub nin are.. NINs themselves and DRG.. and PUP i guess.. Merits mobs are weak enough as they are. Theres no need to overkill and waste more MP instead of just keep a steady pace and conserve MP all round...

overall I loved the questions and was quite intrigued by some of the responses. Its interesting and always helpful to see things from various perspectives. Some of these I woulda guessed to, but some took me by surprise...

[Zilong]

pussies, all of you

[Epical]

I don't think I can add anything that hasn't been said yet, but I'll repeat: amazing job again Elmer. In the past year or so we've bridged a serious gap between the playerbase as a whole and the devs, and now we're working on the playerbase itself with this little gem.

Hopefully we can be the ones answering their questions, giving them more insight into our side of the game.

I chuckled heartily at the ear1/2, ring 1/2 question and how literally they took it... they must think we're some superstitious crazies thinking it matters. =P

[Aidin]

Thanks Elmer, I was surprised by a lot of their answers.

[Jaybar]

Absolutely eye-opening, especially about trying to speak a little Japanese in party-chat. I never bothered to learn even a little bit of Japanese (I mean, besides the obvious Arigatou or Kannichiwa), but their response to the question has urged me to look into basic phrases.

I for one can't wait to hear their questions. I really want to put my 2-cents in since they have been so cooperative with this already.

[arus2001]

Screw subbing NIN on SAM. You know damn well SE put the slow cast on Hasso/Seigan because of Utsu. I'd rather just full-time Seigan than count to 3 and pray.

[Talint]

A fascinating read, Elmer.

I find the idea of "Suddenly, there were gaijin everywhere! Square Enix didn't warn us!" to be kind of amusing. Granted, having to deal with the majority of 16 year old angry nerds who had no concept of cultural awareness and whose only exposure to Japan was anime and video games is probably overwhelming.

[Denchi]

Thanks Elmer.

I remember when I was playing at NA launch my minimal Japanese really did help me. I got all sorts of high-level help from veteran JP players. I was surprised when I found out they weren't helping everyone.... just me. I'm glad they think it's such a compliment.

[Ace-o-fire]

Interesting about the whole "w" thing. When i would invite jps in to party they would always be some what quiet not saying much outside of macros. So when my play time switched to jp prime time i was quiet, maybe this will make me spice it up a bit.

[B. Rockius]

Had a lot of fun reading this. Kind of want to sig some of this, but I'm going to hold back.

I think the one big difference between NA and JP is the most common mindset of a new player. I've never seen a JP player beg in me in tell(well /tell me randomly, so I'd assume the same thing), but I'd be lying if NA players didn't do it. I don't see it much anymore, so it is probably something only found with FFXI was a hot topic.

Everything else is shit is situational.

I get annoyed with dudes who beg and occasionally have my fun with them if I'm bored enough, but thinking back on it, this very comment reminded me that back when I was crazy young, I remember I used to do it. Back in PSO I remember I was begging my ass off for a Lavis Cannon. Alot of the people that did it were kids who just treated it like what it was, a game.

One thing I noticed while playing FFXI that dispite the people realizing that these were other real dudes, they didn't care if they were douchebags or just didn't realize that they were. I remember one party where some DRK logged out mid-pull. When he logged back on an hour later I asked him if he disconnected and he replied, "no i went to eat and watch the simpsons".

All in all, nice work on that survey. Buttons were pushed while reading it, just all those bad memories of seeking for 5hrs just to get an invite and lose it just for being NA. ~_~;

[Amok]

I never knew about those sideways emoticons. The first time I saw it, I thought it was a typo.

LMFAO

Elmer you're a hero for doing this. Thanks, what a great read.

[Sho]

That one dude weeping about /NIN vs /SAM is really living in the past. and ELMER FOR PRESIDENT.

[Aksannyi]

The /NIN vs /SAM thing is really dependent on the party. Basically for pick ups, I want people to /NIN because I don't know if they're retards who can control their level of wtfpwnzorz or not.

[Sho]

I see~ Well, I'd do the /SAM thing on WAR if I still cared to play it, and /SAM always on RNG to churn out dmg and keep up with the normal DDs-- Seigan macro'd in for ohnoes. Everyone should have a Seigan macro anyways for /SAM >_>

[Aksannyi]

Well you see, I have this uncanny way of attracting the most idiotic people ever to my merit parties, so I'm really really paranoid about people being dumbasses. If I could be assured that they were not retards (like, people in my LS), I would allow them to sub whatever the hell they please.

[ringthree]

Elmer epically awesome yet again.

[Sho]

Well you see, I have this uncanny way of attracting the most idiotic people ever to my merit parties, so I'm really really paranoid about people being dumbasses. If I could be assured that they were not retards (like, people in my LS), I would allow them to sub whatever the hell they please.

All things lead to LS Onry ftw :3 Can see where ya coming from totally, however. Thought alot of us have been playing way damn long to be total idiots in PT play.