FFXI's Golden Age?

[Juriva]

Gonna have to agree with Xerlic, and not just because he's my homeboy. Although it took me a loooooong time to finish CoP, I think those missions had the feel of what a real Final Fantasy is like. The storytelling for CoP just plain outshines that of ToAU, definitely WotG and even RoZ. If I had the chance to go back and do them again, story and all, without having to level a second character, I would. Since then I've moved from Titan to Bismarck, but around that time I had some very good friends in game (that have since dispersed to the four winds for many reasons), and it's a time that I look back upon fondly.

[Shinryuu]

Personally, ToAU. I got access to Whitegate immediately as a level 57 RNG (original account) together with my best e-friends (including my current character; it's still our account but I play more). We were a bunch of people not higher than level 63 (our BLM) and when ToAU came, well... where do I begin?

Day 1 (like, hour 5 or so) of ToAU me and my current character /checked "Lesser Colibri" and me, as a RNG, was rejoiced they conned VT. We grabbed some random people (that really, really hesitated. Fucking status quo mentality) and invented Colibri exp. This had another very positive effect. We were among the first to gain imperial standing. I proceeded to become filthy, filthy rich off silver coins. Then we hit level 60 off birds, the coin prices stabilized (no more 600k for a silvercoin), and SE added ISNMs.

Our LS walked the proper way through Mamook (come on, people, not hard) so many times guiding pickups for ISNM60 Puk to the MJSP portal it's not even funny. But we got filthy rich (again) off ISNM drops.

A bit later, my current character's owner quit for a bit, and a RL friend made a character on my account. I leveled my character's MNK to 75 in ToAU, and enjoyed the great exp it offers. Then did it for WAR, and then NIN together w/ my RL friend's DRK. Ahh, ToAU, the memories...

Objectively, looking at say, melee or tank gear, I find the good gear to be pretty decently distributed. My WAR TP gear:
FFXI: 3 (Blitz, PCC, Haub+1)
RotZ: 2 (Dusk gloves, Byakko's Haidate)
CoP: 5 (Swift, Hollow, Brutal, Fortitude Axe, Rajas)
ToAU: 4 (Pole grip, Bomblet, Aurum sabatons, Turban)
WotG: 1 (Cuchulain's)

For other jobs it's usually fairly decently distributed too. CoP is surprisingly important for melee but lacks mage gear save Prudence torque and Novio earring. RotZ still holds some of the most pimp gear (E.Body, D.Ring) not to mention relics, and ToAU gave all jobs some nice easily-obtained gear and some harder-to-obtain top-tier gear (Salvage). WotG has some good items scattered around but lags behind (though the fucking augment system produces some bizarrely broken gear, 'sup Weskit).

[nitsuj]

Personally, ToAU. I got access to Whitegate immediately as a level 57 RNG (original account) together with my best e-friends (including my current character; it's still our account but I play more). We were a bunch of people not higher than level 63 (our BLM) and when ToAU came, well... where do I begin?

Day 1 (like, hour 5 or so) of ToAU me and my current character /checked "Lesser Colibri" and me, as a RNG, was rejoiced they conned VT. We grabbed some random people (that really, really hesitated. Fucking status quo mentality) and invented Colibri exp. This had another very positive effect. We were among the first to gain imperial standing. I proceeded to become filthy, filthy rich off silver coins. Then we hit level 60 off birds, the coin prices stabilized (no more 600k for a silvercoin), and SE added ISNMs.

Our LS walked the proper way through Mamook (come on, people, not hard) so many times guiding pickups for ISNM60 Puk to the MJSP portal it's not even funny. But we got filthy rich (again) off ISNM drops.

A bit later, my current character's owner quit for a bit, and a RL friend made a character on my account. I leveled my character's MNK to 75 in ToAU, and enjoyed the great exp it offers. Then did it for WAR, and then NIN together w/ my RL friend's DRK. Ahh, ToAU, the memories...

Objectively, looking at say, melee or tank gear, I find the good gear to be pretty decently distributed. My WAR TP gear:
FFXI: 3 (Blitz, PCC, Haub+1)
RotZ: 2 (Dusk gloves, Byakko's Haidate)
CoP: 5 (Swift, Hollow, Brutal, Fortitude Axe, Rajas)
ToAU: 4 (Pole grip, Bomblet, Aurum sabatons, Turban)
WotG: 1 (Cuchulain's)

For other jobs it's usually fairly decently distributed too. CoP is surprisingly important for melee but lacks mage gear save Prudence torque and Novio earring. RotZ still holds some of the most pimp gear (E.Body, D.Ring) not to mention relics, and ToAU gave all jobs some nice easily-obtained gear and some harder-to-obtain top-tier gear (Salvage). WotG has some good items scattered around but lags behind (though the fucking augment system produces some bizarrely broken gear, 'sup Weskit).

I don't understand why you switched accounts...

[Kaylia]

To everyone who picked ToA, unless Assault, Salvage and Ein are your reason for liking it, you're most likely very lazy. It takes less than a day to explore the entire continent on your own, and it wasn't satisfying at all. It wasn't rewarding at all, and you don't feel like there is any progress made, everything was already there, and empty.

Two days after the release, we were all back to king, because there was nothing else to do.

Our LS walked the proper way through Mamook (come on, people, not hard) so many times guiding pickups for ISNM60 Puk to the MJSP portal it's not even funny. But we got filthy rich (again) off ISNM drops.

Walking through mamook is freaking easy.
What do you mean by "proper way"? Alone without help? God help people who can't walk through a zone alone, they are terrible player.

[Mayareira]

To everyone who picked ToA, unless Assault, Salvage and Ein are your reason for liking it, you're most likely very lazy. It takes less than a day to explore the entire continent on your own, and it wasn't satisfying at all. It wasn't rewarding at all, and you don't feel like there is any progress made, everything was already there, and empty.

Actually, the entire server moved to Whitegate on day 1.

Two days after the release, we were all back to king, because there was nothing else to do.

"We"? All I remember was the entire community exploring even a month after its release. Message boards were flooded with ToAU stuff.

I wasn't able to get my hands on the expansion for a whole month after release and there was absolutely nothing to do back in the original zones. I remember I couldn't even find an exp. party.

"There was nothing else to do" has got to be the last thing one can say about ToAU.

Even a whole month after its release ToAU related shouts at Whitegate and overall crowd was mind blowing. It brought life back to the so called "dead game ->".

For a glimpse on the impact of expansion, all you have to do is to search BG topics from 2006 April, May, June, etc.

[jurjur]

NA PC release era was my favourite time, making friends and doing the MMO thing for the first time ever.

2005-2007 was very fun, too.

Wish i could vote for those two time periods =(

[hawkie]

A small bunch of us from the UK imported the NA PC release, entered fake US addresses and started our adventure in FFXI together. Nothing has quite topped that feeling in any MMO since. The whole attitude and ambience of the game was vastly different back then and Friday night Eco-warrior runs will always remain one of my fondest gaming memories.

[Dragir]

Even though I voted for CoP, simply because it was the first thing I can remember in the game that really challenged people to push their jobs to the limit and strategize effectively in order to overcome obstacles, I really do have some hardcore nostalgia for launch. I'm terribly excited about XIV, getting in on day one and having to learn all about and explore this brand new world with thousands of other people whom have never seen it before.

↑This...

...except I won't be playing FFXIV. I'm as done with Square as someone still playing FFXI can be. I never thought I'd ever stop loving Square-Enix games, but after the way XI was handled, and the generic feel of most of Square's recent releases, I don't exactly have high expectations for positive changes when XIV goes live.

So, after a lot of time recently spent enjoying ArenaNet's first game, this is where I'll probably be.

[idklol]

Has to be from 360 release for me seeing as thats when i started. I will always remember being new to the game (and mmo's in general) and the feeling of being in such a vast world. Everything seemed crazy and was a lot more fun being new to it all. As time goes by these little things get taken for granted and you don't think much of them any more but i will always miss that shit.

[SephYuyX]

Game kind of turned bleh after ToAU release. Messed up so much crap.

[wipers]

I lost most of my interest in FFXI in late 2005 or start of 2006. For the past three years I haven't enjoyed the game. The only thing that keeps me from quitting is some of the people I've become friends with. If I didn't have any people to talk to I would have quit in 2005.

[Omniyoji]

Game kind of turned bleh after ToAU release. Messed up so much crap.

Actually ToAU released a lot of good instanced stuff but really gave a blow to BLM EXP parties. I'm pretty sure that was the main downfall of that period. The mentality of melee everything to shit began.

[Xajii]

Most/best trolls/drama : CoP/WoW Exodus

Most/best game content: TOAU era

[Qeomash]

For me, the golden age was the months before ToAU's release. That was when I started, and when several of my RL friends started as well. We all played and leveled up together for quite some time.

[Kerberoz]

Actually ToAU released a lot of good instanced stuff but really gave a blow to BLM EXP parties. I'm pretty sure that was the main downfall of that period. The mentality of melee everything to shit began.

Just to nitpick, nothing in FFXI is actually instanced. There are a set number of "copies" of the zones and you get sent to one.

I think the real problem was that around ToAU/XP nerfs, 75 began to mean nothing. Before that it was a fun journey to 75. After that it took a month playing casually to get your first 75 and became about "how many gimp 75 jobs do you have, durhurr maats cap" because XP was so damn easy in ToAU. Specialization died because anyone could get bored of their job and level a new one in a couple weeks.

[Soa]

I think the true "Golden Age" of this game was between NA PS2 release and 12/05.

This was when the population was highest, and many people were learning and exploring, and people actually gave a damn about how they played their jobs in exp parties. The atmosphere was much more about fun than it is now, where accomplishment and epeen seem to be all anyone cares about these days.

Two things happened in 12/05 that irrevocably changed the game for the worse, the MPK patch and the hyperinflation. The MPK patch allowed RMT to run rampant and unchecked in Sky, and to monopolize NM's such as Ulli, essentially cockblocking the entire event. If there was 1 single change in this game I could reverse it would be this one without question.

The economy took over 2 years to recover from the hyperinflation and caused many many people to quit.

ToAU was a great expansion, but it was more of a parachute that slowed the games death march than a Golden Age.

[Titanss]

Personally, ToAU. I got access to Whitegate immediately as a level 57 RNG (original account) together with my best e-friends (including my current character; it's still our account but I play more). We were a bunch of people not higher than level 63 (our BLM) and when ToAU came, well... where do I begin?

Day 1 (like, hour 5 or so) of ToAU me and my current character /checked "Lesser Colibri" and me, as a RNG, was rejoiced they conned VT. We grabbed some random people (that really, really hesitated. Fucking status quo mentality) and invented Colibri exp. This had another very positive effect. We were among the first to gain imperial standing. I proceeded to become filthy, filthy rich off silver coins. Then we hit level 60 off birds, the coin prices stabilized (no more 600k for a silvercoin), and SE added ISNMs.

Our LS walked the proper way through Mamook (come on, people, not hard) so many times guiding pickups for ISNM60 Puk to the MJSP portal it's not even funny. But we got filthy rich (again) off ISNM drops.

A bit later, my current character's owner quit for a bit, and a RL friend made a character on my account. I leveled my character's MNK to 75 in ToAU, and enjoyed the great exp it offers. Then did it for WAR, and then NIN together w/ my RL friend's DRK. Ahh, ToAU, the memories...

Objectively, looking at say, melee or tank gear, I find the good gear to be pretty decently distributed. My WAR TP gear:
FFXI: 3 (Blitz, PCC, Haub+1)
RotZ: 2 (Dusk gloves, Byakko's Haidate)
CoP: 5 (Swift, Hollow, Brutal, Fortitude Axe, Rajas)
ToAU: 4 (Pole grip, Bomblet, Aurum sabatons, Turban)
WotG: 1 (Cuchulain's)

For other jobs it's usually fairly decently distributed too. CoP is surprisingly important for melee but lacks mage gear save Prudence torque and Novio earring. RotZ still holds some of the most pimp gear (E.Body, D.Ring) not to mention relics, and ToAU gave all jobs some nice easily-obtained gear and some harder-to-obtain top-tier gear (Salvage). WotG has some good items scattered around but lags behind (though the fucking augment system produces some bizarrely broken gear, 'sup Weskit).

I don't understand why you switched accounts...

and why were you a 57 rng? o and CoP was the best and I actually miss all the rmt like at LoO and Argus (when it poped in that little room), it made for so much drama and epic lulz -when shit all went to r/ex I never made any money anymore and jc Ulli was epic times also

[Rikus]

EU release/CoP/WoW exodus (9/04 - 3/06)

[payu]

Played since NA PC release (totally imported it to NZ) Has to be Cop hands down(around the time I really started playing with NA's) Granted early on I would have had a different experience than most English speaking players because originally I played with a small group of friends from Australia and almost always in late NA time and JP hours. I will forever miss the Iron Musketeer Heroes who became Paladin AF heroes and finally became the amazing Adaman Heroes guarding the gate at Valkurm dunes. Who would one by one save the dunes parties zoning into Selbina *tear*

[Kaylia]

Actually, the entire server moved to Whitegate on day 1.

The novelty, mixed with the fact that it was taking 20 fucking minutes to reach whitegate (or more if ship wasnt there) also have something to do with this.

"We"? All I remember was the entire community exploring even a month after its release. Message boards were flooded with ToAU stuff.

I wasn't able to get my hands on the expansion for a whole month after release and there was absolutely nothing to do back in the original zones. I remember I couldn't even find an exp. party.

"There was nothing else to do" has got to be the last thing one can say about ToAU.

Even a whole month after its release ToAU related shouts at Whitegate and overall crowd was mind blowing. It brought life back to the so called "dead game ->".

For a glimpse on the impact of expansion, all you have to do is to search BG topics from 2006 April, May, June, etc.

Three new jobs, cerberus (3 day after), 15 assaults, 5 outposts, 2 hours worth of missions and approximatively 10 quests (all were done withing 1 day or 2). That's what we had for 3-4 months.

Assaults were glitched, but it was the only content that had an appeal after the first 2 days. The shitty drop rate (spend months to find the loot you see in the .dat) is why there was threads going on for a while.

I'm not saying it was terrible content compared to what we often get, or a bad expansion, but the novelty wore off pretty fast for me.