I'm braving the General Forums...people are so harsh here ; ;
Firstly, I am Japanese. I read a lot of Japanese Forums, from ************* BBS" to "2ch". I read not only for tips but also how they are seeing the game. Their feel, their money makers, their struggles. I thought I'd share these with you so that you may have a better understanding of what goes on behind those silly Ascii arts.
Secondly, I consider myself NA, as in "North American Player" I play on the NA version, I live in NYC. Because my FFXI is NA version, I can't input in Japanese. So, I've been treated much the same way NAs do...who cares if I can type in Roma-ji. JPs still think I'm NA.
----------------------My Observations-------------------------
First, there are 2 pretty distinct set of JPs.
1) The "casual player" that eternally levels different jobs, plays an average of few hours (3-5) a day. They are usually high level crafters as well, since they can't get enough time to level once they hit lvl 60+.
2) The second type is what they call "Haijin" ... Basically an addict. Usually have quit their full time jobs, neglected friends, family all of Real Life. Yet they are uber players ingame, multiple lvl 75 jobs, a few KIRIN deaths to their name, and have multiple multimillion gil equipment....from Noble's Tunic to Joyeuse.
They don't like eachother. The Kanji, or the Chinese characters used to for the word "Haijin" is literaly, "Wasted Person".
Most of them are college age or older. Probably in their mid 20s all the way to 40s. Why? Because Final Fantasy I came out about 20 years ago. Most of them have been playing since. (Me included)
On non-JPs:
When FFXI first came out, they were very eager to hang out with the NAs. Meet new people, even a few braved their English. BUT was met with abuse. High Lvls being bombarded with /tells of help and beggers stalked them. When they did join up with NAs to PT, most of them did not have any good gear, nor playing skills...where...? IN THE DUNES OF COURSE!
I'm sure most here are at least in your 40+s, with decent gear and playing skill. Imagine...one day you decide to go level in the Dunes, and all you find are n00bs. Shouting non-sense about {mithra}{fun}{hole}, being checked over and over and over, not understanding weapon skills, mages that would over nuke or over cure, gets links and aggros left and right. We've been there, working on our subjobs and sub-sub jobs. We've all PTed with the incapable n00bs once or twice.
Well...unfortunately, when the JPs finally encountered us, it was in the Dunes. When we were all newbie n00bs. Most NAs struggled with playing skills until Crawler's Nest. Then each job will become more distinct, and each player will finally start to understand skill chains, MBs, link control, hate control. But by then, it was too late. JPs were working on their subjobs or sub-subjobs when we were on our 'first round' at the C'Nest. ><
They've had enough.
So, they've basically decided that we are all "noobs".
Think about it...how many PLDs actually ate fish mithkabobs in your 30s? How many mages actually took the time out from leveling so you can make your own juices during your pre-refresh days? How many DDs actually were able to skillchain? Very few...I bet.
I know, because while working on my subjob, I dreaded being in a PT with Rank 2s and 3s - I was unable to go beyond Chain 1, and faced many deaths due to links and bad pulls. I was very reluctant to accept PT invites from Rank 2s and 3s. If it was a blind invite, I declined! I didn't, but came very close to putting in, "Low Rank PTs, {no thanks}" (Hmmmm...familiar to "NA Party No Thanks") But when I was in a PT with Rank 6s and above, I was able to hit Chain 5, MBing off every Skill Chain. see? and this is just amongst NAs!
On Money Making:
Most of them do BCNMs. Pick Up BCNMs where they would always fight the number of fights as orb holders. So if 6 show up with 1 orb each, they will fight 6 times. No one leaves. Just common courtesy.
Most of them do take considerable time out to make money too. Not just NMs but common things as well. Once they made OK money, they would invest in a craft or two. Usually they will work on one or two crafts at a time. Because they take a lot of time making money, they want to level as fast as possible when they go back to EXPing. ... So that's why when they were faced with the newbie NAs, it left a very sour taste in their mouth.
On PTing:
While they are in a PT, they are a family. They take care of eachother, and if another JP PT steals the pull, they actually do yell at eachother. I had a time where a PT of BSTs were leveling near me in Attowa Chasm. They kept on stealing our mobs for their Pets, and when we finally got a pull, released a thier Pets so it will link to ours. Apparently they thought this was funny and kept on doing it, until finally our NIN tank got very angry (cuz every hit he took from the linking has-been-pet blew off his Utsusemi) and my whole PT and the BST duo PT got into a very nasty shouting match. So their PTs aren't much different from ours. "WTF n00b!! Your AOE is hitting our mages!! Move you idiot!!" ...things like that are VERY much the same.
On {JP ONLY}:
Like I said, most are older people who are a bit shy about their English. Maybe some NA along the ways picked on their English skills. Regardless of how much schooling they got, thier English isn't that much better than...let's see...an average American's understanding of French. An average American's Spanish is even faaaar better than an average Japanese person's English.
So it's hard for them to sit there and read English flow by in the PT chat window. They do try to understand it but will certainly diminish their fun time - it would be like going back to school for them!!
I was in PT once where it was me, another NA DD, and the rest were all JPs. The JPs were all chatting away, joking at eachother, discussing tips, etc. The NA DD sends me a tell..."Geee, I feel like a deaf-mute here...so boring ><" Exactly. That's how they feel when you invite one or two JPs into your PT. Double that with the n00bish behaviour they've encountered from the Dunes...no wonder they dont' want to PT with us.
Then I was in a PT with a JP BLM. He was very silent throught the all NA PT. Then the NA PT disbanded. Both me and the JP BLM got invited into an all JP PT. The JP BLM said, "Finally...a language I don't need to use my brain to understand (followed by ascii smilely face". He has {JP ONLY} in his search comment, but he was in an NA PT... I asked him why. He said, "I'd rather be in an environment I can relax. But I'm an EXP ***** (silly ascii face)".
"Global-kun"
Is a nickname given to those on 2ch Forum who try to promote interaction with NAs. There's a good mix now - those who don't mind NAs (especailly decked out NAs) and those who will NOT at any costs do anything with NAs. There's always a good argument going on which I enjoy.
Some actually went on to say: Decked Out NA > average JP
On RMT:
There seems a general concensus that all of us NAs buy gil ; ; I don't blame them, since there are lots of us running around wearing what they concidered end-game dream gear... Gear that was only available to those who have made it big... Hauberks, Vermillions, etc. Grant it, there are some HNMLS leaders running around in decked out gear...but there are some...who are...questionable. But they don't seem to mind - the RMT bought money is going into their pockets ^^;