I love ffxi. Been playing for 3 years and i have 102 days playing time. i have 3 lvl 75 jobs. They are many pro and cons in the game. The big difference is that there are very few "noobs". yes, there are always new players, but this game does an awesome job of weeding out those who arnt truly committed to playing. Lvling at first is very slow, and understanding the purpose of the game is also almost non existent at first. I remember in my first month it took me forever to lvl up and i thought "wow, that guy is lvl 18! i'll never reach that..."
Major problems with game:
1. Slow xping, especially if ur starting off new. Skilling up/ lvling up/ learning the basics take alot of time. I highly recommend using a controller or playing on ps2/360. I spent 60$ to buy a wireless controller for my laptop to play.
2. When i first started, there never really seemed to be a huge purpose in the game except to lvl. A few quest you can do, but nothing important. Quests do NOT give xp or money reward typically.
3. Learning where you have to go takes time too. Its a large world, mostly because there is no real "teleporting" in the game. you can't summon a friend, but recently the game has had a few adjustments that make it easier to travel.
4. Dieing typically sucks. You do lose xp, and it sends you back to your "home point", which can sometimes be a long walk from where you died in the first place.
5. Occasional spam from gil sellers. Gets annoying.
6. Money is pretty hard to make. Farming is typically the only way (at first).
7. This game has 2 sides, altho you will likely never see it. Late at night, the Japs come out!!! Cant understand a damn word they say... and they are typically pretty rude. (late night = 1am or so)
8. From personal experiences, time is the thing you will need the most for this game. Walking, xping, farming, questing, all these take large amounts of time. This is one game you can't rush. There is no way to get power leveled, it pretty much all relies on you.
Reason why i love the game:
1. Fewer noobs! Not many 13 years old play this game. With the people i play with they are typically in the army/navy, and many people are from Europe.
2. After pushing through the initial stages of the game, it starts to be addicting. Leveling becomes fun and you learn to work as a team. Team work is the best way to progress through the game.
3. Once you get to lvl 30 you can choose so many different jobs. 1 Character can change into any job, so you dont have to keep making more characters to try different jobs. Don't want to play warrior for a while? warp back to ur home point and simply change ur job and regear youself. that easy.
4. AH does an awesome job. Everything is very categorized, and its very easy to buy and sell.
5. This game relies on the gamer, not the gear the gamer wears. yes, to a certain extent gear does help make ur char do more dmg or perform better, but it takes skills to use them to ur full potential.
6. Friendly community. If you find a good linkshell you can get loads of help and advice.
7. Higher levels yield more in depth information about what the game is really about. Most of these can only be attained at level 75 though, so leveling is going to take a big chunk of your time.
8. There are very few botters. Yes, there are some, but they dont interrupt normal game play. There might be some NM botters or some people who bot ores, but they wont effect gameplay and they typically get banned pretty quickly. Simply call a GM if you see one and i've heard they get rid of them as soon as 15 min.
Conclusion:
I'd buy it if you really want a game to be devoted to. It is very addictive the more you play it and it takes a long time to do simple things. Even with my 102 days playing time im considered a new person. Most of my friends have 500+ days playing time (one of them has like 1,300 days i think, said he went through 2 ps2's and 1 computer). This game has been out for a few years, and for 19.99$ (thats how much they are selling the game itself) you get all the expansions and add-ons. Its 15$ a month or so, and 1$ more for each char. 1 Main char and 1 Mule is what i use.
I'll definitely try FFXIV, hopefully it will be just as good as this game or better.