The Big FFXI MessFollow

The Awful Truth


* Most players of FFXI are narcissistic, self congratulatory, greedy, self absorbed geeks with inferiority complexes, who play the game not for the fun or adventure…but to feel special about their gear.


* Samurai weapon skills miss the target more than any other job.


* Most players buy gil; many of them reside in HNMLSs.


* The players that you see ripping on other’s gear…are frequently the biggest gilbuyers.


* Your gear is not important, your skill as a player is very important…Salvage has proven this.


* The differences in endgame gear…are minuscule and unimportant, stop arguing about them.


* Arguing extensive mathematical breakdowns of gear…is the nerdiest crap you can possibly do, get a grip on reality.


* Big damage will not increase your ***** size, nor will it get you laid…no one cares how much your WS/nuke does.


* Puppetmaster is all about the Automaton and not about you or your gear, so it’s shunned as the worst job in the game.


* If the player did all the damage and the Automaton just supported, or even if you could simply equip the Automaton with different gear that you could examine and brag about…everyone would love it.


* Players that rush to use of the word “noob” as an insult…are the biggest “noobs” around.


Now, let me tell you how I really feel.


The Big FFXI Mess


Bigger than the game

I’ve debated actually writing this in hopes that I would eventually find something that renewed my faith in the players within our FFXI community. But, to my disappointment, I’ve finally been pushed far enough to actually come out and do this. What am I doing here? What do I seek to accomplish? Simply put, I want people to start thinking. It is becoming increasingly harder and harder for me to continue to play Final Fantasy XI for the reasons you’ll see in this article/rant whatever you’d call it. I’ve come to realize that the problems that I see within the FFXI community are in fact much bigger than they seem, and transcend the game altogether; and with FFXIV on the horizon, we should be stepping back and asking ourselves, “This is what we have now, is this what we want for the future?”. And in my assessment what we have now is a big mess. (Do I think every person in an HNMLS is an elitist gilbuyer? Of course not, I’m just targeting the people who are.) So, I’m saying the things I say here not only to address the community as players, but to address each of you as people. People will disagree with the things I say here, that’s not bad, it’s good, but ignore the parts you don’t like for now, and just read everything I’m saying. This is the most important piece of writing related to FF ever put forth, so please listen, because rather than distance and apathy (which I’ve been guilty of until now), I believe we should seek to improve the community in which we interact everyday. Not only should we seek to improve the FFXI community for our benefit within FFXI, but more importantly we should seek to improve our community for our benefit outside of the game. The attitudes, beliefs and behaviors of the gaming community most definitely have an effect outside of it. I don’t mean the direct effect on a player in real life, (though there certainly is an effect there too. We have financial repercussions for trends we choose to adopt or bypass, we’ve even read stories of suicide and murder for in game items) but what I mean is the way the rest of the world views us. And this is one of the most important things to remember, for how we are viewed by others outside the gaming community effects us tremendously. Most directly, things like censorship (What if amazing landmark moments for us like Grand Theft Auto or FFVII never happened?) and generally how serious the rest of the world takes us. (Can you imagine actually having good film adaptations of our games instead of the horse **** that Hollywood pumps out?)


These are the things that are bigger than the game that we should be thinking about. I, for one, want to continue to see good come to the gaming community in all aspects. Thus, I seek to destroy the ignorance, self centeredness and self destructiveness that have overrun FFXI before it destroys us.


Firstly, a little about myself. I’m Phurios from Phoenix, nice to meet you. I have other 75 jobs, but Monk is my main. I’ve played for 5 years now and have completed every scenario/endgame activity. Without boasting, I’ll just say I’m known for being a good Monk on Phoenix. I have a very busy life outside of FFXI, but I love this game so I try to play it everyday if I can. Being very busy outside of the game is one of the reasons you’ve never seen me post anything in any forum, on any topic, on any website related to FFXI. The other reason I’ve never done this is because forums are (not always, but most often) just used for players to argue about silly things of no importance, and most of what we post there isn’t worth reading. I don’t feel like anyone has anything important to say, rather we’re really just showing off our cool signatures we’ve photo shopped our characters into. You can surmise from my name that I’m known for having a temper. I believe my friends would describe me as a romantic, passionate, and adventurous. Imagine Henry Rollins as a gamer and you’ve got a good idea. Now that you know who I am, let’s jump in.


Ignorance and Elitism (why it’s disadvantageous to us, how to stop it)


Everyone is guilty of being elitist a little bit, this isn’t a problem, extreme elitism is a problem. Let us specify exactly what kind of elitism should be avoided. Screening applicants to your HNMLS, this might sound pompous and snooty, but it’s not. When you specifically want to play endgame activities with a certain group, they have to be careful of who they let play with them. It’s not hard to understand why. These things take lots of time and effort to put together. If they let just anyone join there’s a good chance an inexperienced or jackass player could ***** up the activity for the rest of the group and you’ve wasted pop items, gil, assault points, or worse…everyone’s time and effort. So, as you can see, being selective for endgame and such isn’t a bad thing. However, when you’re kicking someone out of your EXP party for wearing AF, this is when you’ve crossed into dumbass territory. Gathering EXP isn’t difficult, anyone can do it and you don’t need to have perfect gear to do it. As long as you can hit the crab/bird/crawler, as long as you can keep the tank alive, as long as you can dispel and refresh, as long as you can do these simple things, you’re going to get EXP. Don’t get me wrong, if someone is completely lost and it’s burned your party to the ground, you should explain to them that you have to get someone who can maintain the party better, not just saying, “You don’t have Sniper Rings? Goodbye Noob!” and kick them from the party. To someone who doesn’t understand party mechanics, that’s just confusing, they know you want them to wear these rings, but they don’t know why, so they won’t go get them. Explaining to someone exactly what the problem is will go a long way towards helping not only that person, but also you in the future, because the next time you see that person they will have understood why they were the weakling of the group and have sought to improve themselves. However, even before you do that, there are considerations you should take.

Think about it for a moment. Who are these players wearing full AF and STR rings in your EXP party? Firstly, they are people playing their first job in FFXI, which means they are inexperienced and new to the game. Secondly, a lot of them are probably very young kids playing their first or second MMO. We shouldn’t treat younger players so coldly, not only are they the future of gaming, but picking on little kids is just a spineless and disgraceful thing to do. They don’t know any better until someone teaches them.


Now, why should we seek to nurture these players rather than ostracize them? To put it plainly, they are you. They are paying their monthly fee to support the game just as you are. If they cancel their account because they aren’t having any fun; this hurts the community because we’ve limited the resources the community has at its disposal. Would you like to see more real expansions like CoP and Aht Urhgan or mini expansions like ACP and Moogles? If we lose more players than gain, we aren’t seeing another real expansion. Could the Tidal Talisman and Mog-Satchel have been added as endgame quests? Of course they could have, but we had to pay for them… Every time someone cancels their account we are affected, we might not feel it right away, but our pocketbooks will feel it eventually. And when it becomes more expensive to play the game, what will people do? Quit. One can see a cycle forming here which places strain on our community. And it all starts with that person kicking a newbie for not knowing what he/she is doing.


How do we break this cycle that negatively affects FFXI?


The answer on behalf of veteran players is patience and helpfulness. FFXI is an enormously engrossing game, so cut the newer players some slack. You’ve got years of experience on them. Help them to enjoy playing the way you do. An Ecphoria ring is only 50k (on Phoenix at least). Carry an extra ACC ring with you so when you meet a clueless player in EXP he can borrow it for the party. You won’t have to kick anyone out; he’ll see the difference it makes, come to understand the game and continue to want to play FFXI/FFXIV. And if the person is really cool, just let them have the ring, you won’t miss 50k in the long run and you’ll have a new buddy who owes you a favor, which is much more valuable than the gil.


(This next section is more of a guide to the social aspects of the game for new players. Veterans skip ahead to competition and hostility.)


Moving in the right direction


The answer on behalf of new players is simply getting your act together. Make friends with FFXIclopedia. (There are more advanced websites as well, but this one has everything you need to survive in Vanadiel laid out pretty simply) Read about how fight mechanics work. Read about the different jobs in the game and their function in a fight. Always be organized about what you do. Have a strategy planned out BEFORE you do your fight. Figure out what spells the mages should be casting and what spells the enemy will use against you. Having a RDM with you is worthless if you don’t tell him what spells he needs to be casting. (Again, a veteran player will just know, a novice player will not)


In regard to Linkshells: You need friends to make it anywhere in Vanadiel. Be careful though, linkshells come and go, but having friends that will get your back when you need it are by far the most valuable asset in FFXI. No piece of gear is a substitute for 5 people ready to throw down with you. So when it comes to Linkshells, find one that is productive. The people in it aren’t just standing around talking; they’re out adventuring as a group and taking initiative towards missions and advancing their group through the game and most important of all they’re having fun together. You can play any console FF by yourself; this game is made to be experienced with friends. However, be sure to avoid people that only ask you for help with what they need and never come along to help you out. There should be reciprocity among your group of friends. Try to get everyone on the same page mission wise, so that you don’t need to spend ridiculous amounts of time shouting for members. Having a core group of friends for an expansion like CoP makes all the difference between having a blast and wanting to throw your computer off the roof.


Taking the initiative: Don’t wait for someone to shout for a mission you need, ask for help from the veteran players. Let them lead your mission so you can see how it’s done. (Here’s a secret for newer players.) Flattery goes very far in this community. Veteran players love to feel important and appreciated, if you complement them and ask nicely they’ll get a friend or two to come and you’ll have a full party in no time. But you’ve got to schmooze em good. Let them know you want to be as good as they are, and that they’re Ace’s Helm is the greatest thing you’ve ever seen.

New players listen up. In every community there are subtle things that you might not catch at first, so let me explain a few things that will help you to interact better in FFXI.


In regard to experience point parties:

Never do a blind invite. What I mean by blind invite is simply clicking invite on a players name without speaking to them about it first. That’s the best way to not get good members. Not only is it socially awkward in FFXI to do this, but it is viewed as a bottom of the barrel, inexperienced, I don’t know what the hell I’m doing kind of move. Simply put, Noob. We want to know what we’re getting into; we may have questions about the length of time the party will go, the other party member’s jobs, what the enemy will be, etc. This is why a blind invite is a social faux pa in FFXI. So always ask the person if they want to party and do it respectfully. Don’t even use internet speak with players you don’t know. The best way is to simply use the auto-translate. (The tab button) Keep in mind that the way you ask someone a question in FFXI is far more important than what you’re asking. Be clear and precise when you talk to players you don’t know. My friends are always amazed at the way I am able to easily recruit people for just about anything, when there really is nothing amazing about it.

For example, last week I needed a ranger for a level 40 synch party. The only RNG seeking at the time had lvl 45+ in his comment. I sent him a tell politely asking:


“Could I persuade you to come to a level 40 synch?”


He replies “What kind of tank do you have?”


I told him and he agreed to come even though he initially didn’t want to.


What normally would happen in that situation goes a lot like this:


Leader :“EXP PT?”


RNG: “Where?”


Leader: “Gustav Tunnel.”


RNG: “No Thanks. I’m 45+.”


Are we really this lazy? Simply speaking to him like a human being and taking 3 seconds to read his comment made all the difference. Instead of having to find another member I got my Ranger and we leveled up 3 or 4 times.


On the same topic, read player’s search comments. When you first click a player’s name, green text spills out below it. This is called a search comment or /seacom. If you’re not reading this you’re wasting the player’s time, they take the time to put information there to specify what they want to do. Please take the 3 seconds to read it before you invite a RDM when you have 5/6 members, only to have them show up with a buddy, whom they’ve clearly put in their search comment as a seeking pair. The RDM is pissed his friend can’t come and leaves you without a refresher. Don’t put yourself through this.

Which job to play: There is no such thing as a bad job in FFXI, they are all good. However, there are 2 jobs that stand out as the games most useful in the most situations. These are Paladin and Red Mage. Not only are they very useful, but they get party invites faster than most jobs (Bard, Corsair and Ninja will also get snatched up quickly). If you want to have a swift path to 75, play one of these jobs.


Advice on party building: GET YOUR TANK FIRST. You cannot fight with any kind of efficiency without this member. This is your Paladin, your Ninja, in some cases your Warrior, in rarer cases other jobs. You are wasting everyone’s time if you invite 5 people and then have to wait 2 hours to find a tank. They could be seeking and getting other invites, so could you. Don’t invite anyone until you’ve spoken to a tank and agreed on his/her accompaniment. The second most important member is someone to heal your tank, your main healer (lots of jobs can do this; WHM, RDM, SCH, DNC, SMN, PUP, even a BLU if you’re really hard up) then the last and equally as important member is a refresher, someone to keep the healer supplied with enough MP to heal non-stop. There are very few refresher jobs. RDM, BRD, COR, SCH (only self refresh.) Honestly, you can get your EXP without a refresher, but it’s just much slower and no one wants to have to wait for the main healer to rest. However, one of the newest jobs in the game is Dancer. If you have a Dancer (capable of DD and healing) and another healer they can alternate healing and resting mp/gaining tp. Thus, somewhat nullifying the dire need for refresh and enabling your party to fight non-stop. Invite a Dancer if you can’t get a refresher.


In regard to Missions and the like: The way you build your party for a mission fight is entirely situational. Most of the time you’ll want to use a normal party setup but there are many situations that deviate. Make sure you look at how others have done it in the past and ask a veteran friend for help. Always bring a form of Reraise and make sure you have a refresher unless the fight will be over extremely fast. And have fun even when you lose the fight, when you finally win it, it’ll be all the sweeter.


Competition and Hostility within FFXI


So, looking back at what we’ve discovered, we can see that all it takes is a little patience and helpfulness (less troublesome for you) to affect the community in a positive way, while it takes arguing, conflict, and mean-spiritedness (very troublesome for you) to affect it negatively. Which should you choose if you want to continue enjoying FFXI/FFXIV? Clearly the answer is the former. If this isn’t enough, think about the situation morally. You were that young and clueless once (perhaps not in FFXI, but somewhere), wouldn’t you rather have been helped than treated harshly? What would our player population would be if people didn’t cancel their accounts because they can’t get an invite in Valkurm Dunes? These people never got to experience FFXI past level 15.


Let us make something abundantly clear for anyone who is confused, FFXI is not a PvP game, it’s not even close. If this is what you’re looking for you need to be playing WoW or the billions of different shooters available. Since the PvP in FFXI is almost non existent, some people go to the extent of verbal battling to attempt to some kind of misdirected victory. This is counterproductive. It is very rarely beneficial to alienate yourself from people in FFXI. (Especially considering the small size of the community) If you just look at the title image of this game, you’ll see a picture of many different adventurers of different jobs and races all standing united. FFXI is all about working together towards a goal for a group of adventurers. No matter how wonderful you think your job is, no matter how wonderful you think your gear is, you aren’t going to solo all of Vanadiel. You are simply a small part of a group and you need other players to get anything worthwhile done at all. Siren’s 2000 win streak in Besieged is a prime example of this. (Bravo to Siren, very impressive) Yet, everywhere we look we see hostility and competition. 3 Merit Parties fighting over the same bird camp, people constantly arguing that their job is better, that their gear is better than someone else’s, people running off and hiding with monsters in campaign battles, people buying obscene amounts of gil to buy gear, blacklisting each other for the most trivial reasons, the list goes on. So, why the hostility and competition in a game that centers on cooperation? My explanation is M.I.M.S.


M.I.M.S.: The Me Me Me, I I I, My My My, Syndrome. This is a disorder in which players think that all of Vanadiel revolves around them. No one knows where this disorder originated or even how it’s contracted, but these are the symptoms to look for:


*Player does nothing but talk about himself/herself (particularly gear)

*Player can’t stop comparing his/her gear to other players on the same job

*Player buys tons of gil

*Player offers obscenely high amounts of gil as a reward for obtaining gear they want

*Player has good gear setup but lacks skill and knowledge

*Player argues mathematics as if every .01% of damage made a difference in a videogame (you might as well get the pocket protector and argue Kirk vs. Picard)

*Player does dumb **** like try to steal camps and/or gear, or tries to clone Salvage drops


Stay as far away from these players as possible. M.I.M.S. is highly contagious and may cause you to become an extremely annoying tool that everyone secretly can’t stand to be around or even cause a permanent ban from the game by Square-Enix.


How do we combat M.I.M.S.?

M.I.M.S. has to be beaten out of the host body. Blunt trauma to the head will usually do the trick, but repeated bludgeoning to the face also works, just slower. If I had the resources I would gladly fly around the world and personally cure every case of this disorder possible. But in reality, I’m too broke for that. There are small steps we can take in game to help control M.I.M.S. outbreaks which I will discuss now.


Merit Parties: Never try to steal a camp from another party. You are only going to ruin exp for your party and the other party. Instead, simply ask the other party leader how long they plan to stay. If it’s too long to wait, just find another camp that is free. You’ll net a lot more EXP in an empty MamoolJa Staging point camp or Mount Zhayolm than fighting with another party over the same 5 birds. There are also plenty of good areas in the wings of the goddess expansion. Have a backup plan, don’t be a fool.


My job is better: Here is the dirty little secret about jobs in FFXI. There are only three kinds of jobs though they are deceptively named 20 different ways.


1. Jobs that primarily damage
2. Jobs that primarily prevent or heal damage
3. Hybrids of 1 and 2 that do both well


Every job in FFXI does one of these three things in its own way. Every job has its situation where it will either excel or lack. No one way to do it is better, anyone professing they do it better is suffering from a severe case of M.I.M.S.

My Gear is better: Brace yourself; this is going to be exceedingly difficult to understand but try to work through it. Go back and read this section two or three times until you’ve understood every intricate detail of what is being said. Here we go… **** your gear, **** my gear, **** everyone’s gear. Just as with Jobs, gear is all situational. Absolutes do not exist. For example, there is the Destroyers vs. Hades Sainti argument. I’ve read all the nerdy stuff comparing the two. Let me make this simple, if you want to tank slightly better, Hades. If you want to tank less but do a little more damage, Destroyers. EVERY argument over gear can be summed up as simply as that. Anything more complicated than that is not worth your time to fight about with some clown on a forum. There are so many different pieces of gear with different stats that only a fool would pick one of them and use it 100% of the time. Every good player has many pieces of great gear at his/her disposal. Anyone waving a flag on a forum and speaking absolutes for his/her gear…M.I.M.S.


Playing for function


What is the most important function in FFXI? Healing, tanking, DD (damage dealer), support? I don’t have the answer to that question. However, I do know which function is the least important. Contrary to popular belief, DD is the least important function in FFXI. DD is easy, try doing something difficult like playing BRD or COR well. (Buffing melees, buffing mages, sleeping adds, debuffing the monsters and all the while pulling the next monster for the lazy *** DDs to WS.) Every job in FFXI can DD in some way, you are not doing anything special by doing what every other job in the game can do, which makes DD the least important function. So any time some ignorant dumb **** Samurai starts boasting, remind them that even a Whitemage can do what they do.


If there are only 3 different kinds of jobs, (see above) you must look at the specific things that makes your job distinct from others to really play it effectively. This is called playing for function. These are the little things that your job can do that make it unique. If your job can easily stun (outside of a WS stun) this is a function of your job. I’ve done Nyzul Isle assaults and had the party wipe to tier III agas. This is understandable; Soulflayers are rough…but not if I’m with a Dark Knight who stands there as if he doesn’t have the spell Stun, which could easily cancel all that damage. DRKs have this spell from level 37 onward, you’d think by level 75 they’ve all had enough experience with it to Stun a spell that takes that long (what? 8-10 seconds?) to cast. Stupidity like this happens because players don’t understand their function. We are too caught up in trying to put the biggest number into a parser to actually play well. Blue mages that go into fights without any stun spells set (when they have several available) are wasting everyone’s time. Warriors that stand there never using provoke while an add kills your mages should be banned from the game and executed by guillotine. How the hell can you have this ability from level 5 onward and not know when to use it? All your damage you do is worthless if your mages die and your party wipes. Even if you’re /war, if you have provoke, your function is to use it when the time comes.


Gilbuying, Inflation and Resistance


Forget Gilsellers. The biggest problem in FFXI by far is gilbuying. If we weren’t spending hundreds of dollars on these gil sites, gilsellers would not exist. Why is it that people buy gil? What kind of social strain must we put on each other to push people to spend real life money on virtual money? Let us explore some common explanations and the ways to resist against them.


The Transference Theory: One thing that lingers in the back of my mind as I ponder these topics is our player’s real lives and how we feel outside of FFXI. I can’t help but be suspicious that players going to the extent of spending hundreds of dollars on gil are very unhappy in their real lives or lack something important in their real lives and seek to gain status and control in games (which is much easier than real life) by throwing money at their problems. (I won’t pretend to be a shrink, I’ve only even taken intro level courses in psychology, this is just a shot in the dark.) To the players doing this, please listen. There is no way to boost your self esteem or prove your self worth by playing a videogame. These types of things must happen in reality and can only be attained in temporary quantities in a fantasy setting. When you turn the game off, you will still be the same person. So why waste your (or your parents) hard earned money on gil that you can get in the game for free? On top of not being happy with yourself in real life, you’ll be broke. To put it very simply, stop wasting your money on gil!!! It is not going to solve anything.


The Social Acceptance Theory: Some people will buy gil in order to attain a type of status within the game that comes with having certain pieces of gear. What we need to explain to these people is that the only thing more pathetic than a nerd desperately seeking approval from the cool kids is a nerd desperately seeking approval from greater nerds. If you really feel pressured to have a SH+1 when you could only afford a NQ, you are hanging with super nerds. Get out before you get the M.I.M.S.


Laziness: FFXI (as many MMOs) is a game you have to put a lot of time and effort into. It is most definitely not for everyone. If you’re a person that isn’t going to be in it for the long haul, it’s probably not the game for you. Thus, we have people buying gil to simply speed the process of the game along and skipping the adventure in exchange for the M.I.M.S.


Resistance


How do we resist against gilbuying?


* Oust gilbuyers: We’re so quick to blacklist each other over some silly disagreement. Take that frustration and aim it at someone who is really ruining the game for you. If someone fesses up to buying gil, blacklist them and get everyone you know to blacklist them. And let them know why you’re blacklisting them. And make sure you embarrass them. Tell a GM to report them to the Special Task Force. When they have to change Linkshells or servers and make new friends they won’t be so stupid, or if we’re lucky they’ll be embarrassed enough to just quit playing altogether or they’ll just get banned.


* Don’t want things so badly: Remember that you’re just playing a game. No one can judge you as a person by what equipment you’re wearing in a ******* game. If you don’t have the time to farm 8 mil for a Black Tathlum…who cares??? Not anyone with an ounce of intelligence in them. If you have great gear, run around Aht Urhgan in full AF once in a while. Show everyone you’re not a nerdo showoff. Let people know that it’s ok not to have your gear too. If less people want your gear not only will you look more unique wearing it, but people won’t go out and buy gil trying to get it.


* Resist inflation: If you have 8 mil to buy a Black Tathlum…DON’T!!! If you think the price for something is too much, then don’t pay that much for it. By NOT buying something, you’re actually forcing the price to come down. And by doing so you dissuade others from paying as much and/or buying gil to get an item.


* Turn on your Examine filter: There is a filter in your settings that will let you play FFXI without feeling like you’re being judged every 20 minutes. New players don’t have to feel like someone is looking down on you for not having some dumb **** that they have. If you turn this filter on, you won’t feel like that unless they say something ignorant to you. (And then you can rip on them for having M.I.M.S.) By doing this, you will be less influenced by the opinions of other players and less tempted to spend your money on gil to acquire some stupid piece of equipment.


What I’ve laid out here in the above sections are the biggest problems that our community faces. All of which are internal and remedied in very simple ways by us, the players. Square-Enix can only do so much on their part. They’ve taken a firm stance against gilbuying/selling and botting so much that they’ve created a special task force to deal with such problems. And they’ve given us various kinds of player support. (I’m not saying they’re perfect, but they’ve put forth an honest effort for us) I believe it’s time for us, as a community of people to start doing our part to improve our games and benefit ourselves.



Closing thoughts

For me, (and I’m sure for many of you reading) the question still beckons; Ok Phu, we get what you’re saying, but how important is all of this in the big scope of things? Aren’t you taking the game a little too seriously to have written all this? No, the way technology is advancing we’ll soon be doing most of our interactions virtually, so whether we’re in a game or not I want all gamers to behave with some class and stop making me look bad. And yes, FFXI is just one game, but it’s certainly not the last game we’ll see each other in. FFXIV is already on the way, and the next online FF, and the next one, as well as countless other games in which we’ll have to interact.


Are videogames really this important at all? I think the answer is deceptively, yes. I can remember moving to the United States at age eleven. I only had 1 friend at the time that was also a gamer. (My funny accent made me the kid to pick on, a lot like Pip in South Park) Now, I have no doubt in my mind that had we not been into gaming, my friend and I would have got into drugs, or cars, one of the two or both. So rather than these superficial things we were experiencing new ideas from Japan, discovering how to be creative and learning leadership skills. (I could elaborate on this but we’d be here all day) And every once in a while I’ll run into the people that were into those things back then and see that they’re all pretty much losers now. Most of them work at wal-mart or gas stations. I have no doubt that without a strong background in gaming I never would have had the desire to go to college, nor would I have written my first screenplay. I can attribute lots (not all, but lots) of my success in life back to gaming. And I would not be the person I am today without it.


I’ve been having an argument with my fiancé for some time now, which (to my displeasure) she seems to be winning. The argument is whether the players of FFXI are really my people or not. By my people I mean to say that we are in most ways similar or that we would be friends outside of FFXI. She believes this is not the case because of the differences in age (I am 25 now), my sense of self awareness, my pretentiousness, my short temper, and because of my general philosophies in life. I, on the other hand, feel that she is wrong but understand why she thinks what she does. She really only hears about the negative aspects of FFXI (from me), and can’t see the prospect for improvement that we so easily could achieve if players would just take some initiative. So I’ve explained to her the cool and uncool nerd dynamic in hopes to gain some leverage over her in this heated debate.


Cool and Uncool Nerds:

One thing that goes unsaid very often in the gaming community is the distinction between cool and uncool nerds. (This distinction can be made in lots of communities, but I’ve been campaigning this in the gaming world for several years now.) I won’t delve deeply into this topic or we’d be here for another ten pages, but I’ll make clear the distinction. But first let me define the term nerd and the context in which I use it. When I say nerd I simply mean a person who is very into something, very knowledgeable of something or just enraptured by something. The word nerd carries no positive or negative connotation for me. I have friends who are (as I would say) music nerds, fitness nerds, TV nerds, political nerds, gaming nerds, etc. Everyone is usually a nerd for something to me, whatever it is you tend talk to me about the most.


Cool gaming nerds live rich, colorful and fulfilling lives outside of games, thus we (yes, I’m a cool gaming nerd) never have to throw our weight around in a fantasy setting. We won’t belittle someone without a good reason, we won’t cheat to get ahead, we’re open minded, and we’re deep thinkers. And most importantly, we appreciate games and the gaming industry for the right reasons.


Reading the problems I’ve laid out in this article gives you a good idea of what uncool gaming nerds are. They talk fast, they think slow, they’re overly defensive, they’re insecure, they’re weak, they like games for the wrong reasons, and sadly, they are the impression that most of the world has of all gamers. I’ve had the opportunity to meet some uncool gaming nerds out in the real world, and I feel that most of these uncool nerds could be turned to the good side if they realized exactly what they are and what they are perpetuating. (If anything I’ve said here has done that for anyone, let me say congratulations and welcome home.)

The problem that I see in the FFXI community is firstly that lots of the cool nerds don’t know that they are cool nerds. And secondly the cool nerds are apathetic or just plain lazy. Rather than leading the community in the right direction, we choose to sit back and have our fun while the uncool nerds lead us toward ruin.


Comparing to other communities:

My fiancé is a professional belly dancer (yes this exists outside of Halloween costumes and corny American novelty, no it’s not stripping) and she has her own community in which I witness her interactions. Compared to this kind of community we have a very long way to go. Everyone contributes they’re part and when conflicts arise they are always constructive and towards a goal or mutual understanding. For example, a performer is doing shows for much less than what they should: they have forums, people debate how much is fair and the reasons why, and they come to a decision as a group. The end of that forum would read something to the effect of “Our fee will be X amount per 20 minute set in city X.” They establish that they have a problem in the community; they debate about it, come to an understanding and then execute the plan to address the problem because they know it will affect the entire community. This is just one example, I’m sure everyone can think of other communities that function in the same manner.


Perhaps the biggest issue is that we all need to realize that even though we may be young and inexperienced in life, we actually have more power and influence in this community than we think, that goes beyond simply playing a game. Why is it that blind party invites are shunned in our game? Why don’t we harvest someone else’s harvesting point? Why do we have designated camps? These are all things that we have established and maintained since the game’s inception. If the players as a community decide to change these things, it’s gradual but it happens. We changed our merit camps from Sky to Aht Urhgan. We changed our whipping boy from DRG to PUP. We even got Square Enix to improve Dynamis and Salvage drop rates. These things aren’t difficult to see. If we don’t buy games from a company it goes under, if we make a good enough website Square-Enix will link to it, if we vie for a re-release of Marvel vs. Capcom2 with online battles, we’ll get it. We have a direct effect on what happens within the industry and the companies and games within, yet we in the FFXI community do nothing to address the biggest problems that exist now or that will undoubtedly appear in the future.


A farewell

It took me a long time before I actually started writing this piece. It’s not until recently that I realize that this procrastination was fueled by my subconscious knowledge that this article would be my farewell to FFXI, the love of my gaming life. (Yes, I’m a big hypocrite for quitting.) For a while I couldn’t decide between doing a music video for my goodbye and writing this piece, but I decided this would be more useful for us. (Why has no one done a video to Dropkick Murphys’ “The Gauntlet”? The hook of this song encapsulates everything FFXI is about.)


In the five to six years I’ve played I’ve done everything there is to do and I’ve simply outgrown Vanadiel. It’s not a bad farewell by any means, I’ve had so much fun adventuring with my friends that I’m sure I’ll always look back on FFXI as one of the most fun experiences of my young life, it was the culmination of many years of great RPGs finally online with your friends. Everything I wanted from an RPG since I first experienced FFVII as a youngster. I can honestly say that my time spent in Vanadiel transcended the experience of playing an online game and taught me many things about myself, other people, leadership, and friendship. I would even say that I am a more enriched person because of my time here, better equipped to deal with real world problem solving and interactions. I’ll miss Vanadiel greatly.


Take the ideas put forth in this article as my contribution to FFXI, but more importantly to the upcoming FFXIV. I’m sure I’ll see you for FFXIV even if I’m too busy to play it as much as FFXI (please Square-Enix come through for us on the casual gaming aspect) but even if you don’t see me there, remember what you’ve read here and put the parts that you like into practice. Because if there is one thing you should take away from what has been said here, it’s that I believe that we are better than this. We should be rolling our eyes at the star wars nerds, and the frat boy super jocks, not lowering ourselves to their level.


Have fun everyone,

Phurios

* Big damage will not increase your ***** size, nor will it get you laid…no one cares how much your WS/nuke does.

Arguing extensive mathematical breakdowns of gear…is the nerdiest crap you can possibly do, get a grip on reality

I think you just summarized like 90% of FFXI quitting threads, so kudos to you on that. As for the actual essay, sh*t sucked. A+ on making you sounds super important though (or as you call it when other people do it, the M.I.M.S)

here because why +1 once, when you can +1 twice?

Cool story bro.