FFXI's Golden Age?

[Not Kuno]

'03 fag here. CoP was the best era. ToAU helped a lot but CoP was better.

[dejet]

ToAU added a lot to the game, I just hate birds so I cant say ToAU. NA PC release or CoP(and the next year of updates with it). I had a blast doing CoP as it came out. Was also cool that some mages did not have all their spells because of the price. Raise III any other whm got theirs off kirin ~_~? or BCNM for erase lol?

[Auspice]

'03 fag here. CoP was the best era. ToAU helped a lot but CoP was better.

110% agree. Nothing compares to the wonderment of finally completing the ridiculously hard(at the time) Promys and finally getting to see Tavnazia. Or staying up until 3 AM wiping over and over to a really hard BC and finally completing it as you're passing out spamming through the cutscenes. To this day, I still don't remember half the CoP story simply because it took me all day and all night to power through most of those BCs pre nerf.

[Not Kuno]

ToAU was the real reward for CoP. Everyone who came late just doesn't understand.

[Gulkeeva]

probably somewhere between the ending of CoP and start of Taou I saw the most people and were always talking about and going crazy over the new stuff. Had alot people going for taou at stores etc.

Didn't take long to find groups, lots of stuff to do

[byte]

The game just got better and better up until after ToAU was released. Then SE just decided to take a big crap on the game, cut the staff numbers down to barely anything and content became more and more sparse. It's such a shame because I always really wanted to go to the fanfest (which also got worse every time after the ToAU one (which was probably the best)) but there isn't much point now because I doubt there will ever be a big expansion again. FFXI has lost its magic for me

[Spider-Dan]

DEFINITELY CoP era, I think most of the people who don't vote for that period simply weren't playing at that point.

10/28/03 here. I voted for TAU era, as stated.

My sense of wonder playing CoP was greatly reduced by my lack of access to the new content. The fact that a good chunk of my LS (comprised entirely of people I know IRL pre-FFXI) quit for WoW did not help matters. And, being a RNG main, The Day The Arrows Died didn't exactly sear positive thoughts in my head.

During CoP era, I felt like the game was a grind to get to the point where I could actually Do Stuff. Grinding levels, grinding missions, grinding gil to try to keep up with crazy inflation. During TAU era, I was already all grown up and could just jump directly into all the new content.

[Sonomaa]

toau, by far

[Rokku]

The ToAU release was the high point of FFXI I think, but the things that are most likely to stick in my memory after the servers shut down are the NA PC release days.

CoP and ToAU are both up there, but I just don't think in terms of memories that killing Promathia will ever overtake the memories of running around Gustaberg with the few and limited NA players there were at the time and making friends that lasted the entire game.

[dejet]

anyone else run up the promys with 20+ people and mix and mach jobs for hours till it worked?

At 65 whm I slowed down a lot. I got into my 1st End game shell. In the 1st week I killed genbu and byakko gogo 6 outside healer whms! and like 4 plds LOL. also wiped to suzy. My 1st kirin kill with the shell was I think 3-4hrs with around 30-40 people.
Need to get my pol email have pics on my ps2 of a wipes to old gods with their old look lol its funny seeing the old gods now and seeing just a ton of dead people.

I also have to say I miss the days when you would try and pop ulli, and a Linkshell would come up and just leave. MPK was not a big deal back then, it was not till RMT took over did it become evident that something had to be done.

Killing a monster was a big deal, taking a sky god lots of linkshells would give you a pat on the back. say grats ask what you got and who got it. Now a wipe to anything even with 10 people is shunned.

"Psh you can 10 man kirin" "psh we 6 man fafnir now"
"your a rdm? you solo suzy yet?"

it is just nothing like the past.

[BadKarma]

360 release since that's when I started playing again

[Weeks]

Even though I like everything ToAU brought us, endgame was already a cesspool by the close of the CoP era. Cheating had ceased to be a dirty little secret, RMTs overran much of the early content, and the disruption brought about by those two elements led to an awful lot of hate in the endgame scene.

I think we can get more agreement that FFXI's low point was the beginning of server transfers.

[dejet]

I server jumped so idk. I dont hide who I am and even talk to people from valefor from time to time still. It worked well I was in a great shell for a time ^^ and now im in a nice shell too. It did screw a lot of Linkshells over tho. "bank jumped to XX!" "where did XX go he just went mia this mont!"

[Dein]

Having played on and off a lot since the NA PC release of XI I won't say the golden age of FFXI is when I had the most fun. ToAU and beyond is certainly the "Golden Age" compared to what the game used to be like, but like a lot of people I had some of the best memories (and the most fun) from doing the CoP missions the first time with a good group of friends during the summer of '05.

[Limlight]

I have mixed feelings about server transfers. You only hear about the bad, I'm sure there's an equal amount (and maybe even more) of good thats come from them, but again only the bad is reported.

I may get called an idiot but I still think ffxi is fun and to a degree challanging. Just have to keep things fresh and look for new goals/challanges, plus its all about friends. Whats ff without killing your friends over and over and over then the convo's on vent about it lol.

[TacoTaru]

4/15/05 Here. Spent a lot of time trying to figure out what job I wanted level and by the beginning of 06 was starting on CoP. Spent the better part of 06 getting done with it. 05' is still my favorite year of playing to date. My fiancee and my best friend all started playing soon after me, as well as my other good friend was still playing. Spending all week playing and exploring new ares was the peak of when I enjoyed the most.

Now it's more of just running the linkshell I have, getting my friends the gear they want before they quit, and trying to finish the last of my goals before FFXIV comes out, but nothing compares to what the first year of the game was for me.

[Absolutely Virtue]

I'm a betafag and I voted for PC release. I miss the days when conversation about gameplay was about discovery of basic things, and not a bunch of fucking math dorks arguing about formulas.

But a close second was the day we finally ripped kings from the small, yellow, girlish hands of the JPs on Fairy.

[Nevex]

I have mixed feelings about server transfers. You only hear about the bad, I'm sure there's an equal amount (and maybe even more) of good thats come from them, but again only the bad is reported.

To be honest the only positive aspect about free server transfer is the fact that it's a big source of hilarity and lulz on the corresponding section on these forums.

I think those who went through relic or mythic upgrades, unless they transfered themselves, hate it with a passion.

I don't deny that there are good aspects (getting to play with friends or apply to some big LS) but I believe as a community we'd be better off if it didn't exist.

[Confuse]

From a NA version possessor's point of view, even though I'm European, pre-EU release.

Game got much worse after it.

this

[Flokk_9]

Sometime between EU release/CoP/WoW exodus (9/04 - 3/06) and X360 release/TAU (4/06 - 10/07), at least for me. Inflation was crazy and everybody felt like a balla because of it, hilarious drama and flail wars were practically a daily occurrence (at least on Fairy). Was still playing with more or less the same batch of friends since PC release, camps and merits and everything were augmented by hilarity on ventrillo. Just good times in general. Thinking about it, it's pretty strange to still be playing now.