Post by Ikonic on Jun 12, 2005 0:20:25 GMT -6
One bright, sunny day in Bastok, a brand new little level 1 taru popped into existance.
He happily went out of the north gate from Port Bastok, onion sword in hand. In his mind, he was a bold, powerful Warrior, though sometimes his body didn't seem to quite live up to it. But he had the willpower and determination to forge ahead, fighting endless worms and bees, sometimes winning, sometimes losing, always wide-eyed at the huge, amazing world lying before him.
Eventually, he braved the long path through south and north gustaberg, stood victorious over the worms, saplings, and occasional sheep munching grass in Konschtat Highlands, and stood proudly gazing at the pinnacle of his achievements, reaching level 10.
"Wonder if I'm a high level yet?" he thought as he looked upon the impressive double-digit number. High-level or not, he was loving this new world, having a wonderful time building up his newly powerful (yet short and cute) character.
However, as he set his pint-sized newly-uber warrior to killing fiends and beasts again, an elvaan ran by on a choco. The elvaan stopped beside him, checked him, then spoke.
"u noob" the elvaan began, "why are you a taru melee? tarus are suposed to be mages!"
"But I like being a melee!" the surprised taru argued, "I like hitting things!"
"u can still fight," the elvaan continued, "but u gotta be a good race. If u dont u wont get invites, and wont get to do the fun stuff"
The little taru warrior checked the elvaan, seeing that he was a level FOURTY FIVE paladin! Wow! Guess this guy knows all about the game, I should probably take his advice.
"Ok, I guess I'll just restart as another character" the taru sighed as the elvaan's choco sped off in the distance.
The taru restarted as a hume. He figured that he had seen lots of humes, surely a hume was okay for a warrior. He didn't feel as close to or as happy with his character, but if this was what it took to do the fun stuff, then he'd do it.
So the hume went through the same path as before. This time, doing it all again, it didn't seem like as much fun, but hey, those are the breaks, he figured. He finally got to level 10 again, then past it to level 12, still happily dueling with the various evil monsters inhabiting Vana'diel.
A hume monk was running on foot past him, heading north. The hume stopped and introduced himself, then asked why the warrior was still soloing mobs.
"Isn't that what you do? I've gotten three levels in the past two days!" the warrior proudly declared.
The monk chuckled and explained that at that level, you needed to be in a party.
"Why?" asked the warrior.
"Because if you aren't in a party, you can't get good xp. If you can't get good xp, you can't become High Level. And if you can't become High Level, you can't do the fun stuff!" the monk politely explained.
"Oh, okay" the warrior replied, gazing back on the corpse of the sheep, defeating which he had considered such an achievement.
"Come on with me, we'll go get a party in the dunes!" the monk cheerfully said, running north.
The pair joined a party in the dunes, then another, and another. Sometimes the parties were full of nice people, sometimes people seemed really gruff and in a hurry.
The warrior wondered why they were even playing the game if they weren't enjoying it. Sometimes he wished that he could just go back to fighting things on his own, but he always remembered the words of the monk, that you have to get good xp and get more levels to be able to do the fun stuff.
One time in a party in the dunes, when they were killing crabs, the warrior noticed that the places where the crabs were always had tons of people there, it was always laggy with no crabs around to kill until one spawned. Besides, killing crabs got boring, especially when they did that stupid move that made you always hit for zero damage.
"Can we just kill rabbits or something?" he asked, pointing at a rodent merrily hopping along.
The whole party laughed, and the leader explained that you could get a lot more xp faster killing crabs than rabbits.
"Well, we still get xp killing rabbits right?" the warrior asked, confused.
"Look, we're killing crabs here. I'm leveling my sub and I don't have time to waste killing stupid rabbits. If you keep bugging me about this I'm going to kick you from the party." the leader gruffly replied.
"Oh, ok. Crabs it is then I guess" the warrior complied.
So, the warrior kept trucking along, getting xp, levels, doing everything that was expected of him. Getting the subjob quest, getting his choco, lots of neat new stuff came.
"Maybe they were right about having more fun at the high levels!" he thought.
Eventually he got up to level 25, got his kazham keys, and headed off to The Jungle.
One of the first parties in the jungle encountered the same thing he had happen with the crabs, too many parties and not enough mandies. After killing two mandies in 10 minutes because of the lack of supply, he had an idea.
"My friend mentioned that we could go party in Batallia at this level! It might be fun doing something different!" he suggested.
"If we aren't killing mandies, I'm leaving. I'm not here spending gil to get crappy xp" replied a ranger in the party.
The party leader, seeing the potential for the ranger to leave, quickly dismissed the idea suggested by the warrior. So the partied stayed, claiming whatever mandies they could find, making crappy xp.
The warrior continued partying, xping, sometimes getting lots of xp, sometimes not very much, but in any case moving forward. He eventually got to 30, and set out to become a Dark Knight, because that seemed like fun. He didn't really like the idea of going through all of those levels again, but at least he would be playing one of those ADVANCED jobs. Those must be more fun!
He did the same things as before, passing his level 30 warrior. Sometimes he looked back on his warrior, thinking how cool it was to be able to tank sometimes, to break out with a giant Sturmwind and save the day. But, still, he was an advanced job now, he's advanced past those simple things. Of course it would be nice if his damage had advanced, but those are the breaks.
So, he continued on, partying, getting xp, getting higher and higher level, doing the things that were required of him. Of course it wasn't fun sitting around LFG for a long time, or farming for weeks to buy the required gear, or getting kicked out of a party when a Ranger started seeking, or having to sell armor that he thought looked cool because his party required him to wear something that had an extra +1 DEX, or noone taking his suggestions seriously because he was apparently the lowest man on the totem pole in the party, but he still did everything people needed, and tried his best to be a good DRK, because he knew that eventually he would get to "the fun stuff".
So after a year of working to be acceptable to parties, doing whatever he could to get good xp, the DRK dings level 75. He's arrived! He's uber high level! Bring on the fun stuff!
Well, the problem was that it seemed that you needed to be in an HNMLS to do the "fun stuff". When he tried to apply to a few, noone seemed to need a DRK. One of his friends, a WHM who was in an HNMLS, explained to him that they needed a red mage, so if he could level up a red mage, then he could get in and do the "fun stuff".
So, our DRK became a red mage. He never really wanted to be a red mage, but if he's ever going to get to do the "fun stuff", then how else could he do it? Fortunately, he could sell his DRK gear so he didn't have to farm, so he could level quickly.
One time while his red mage was still in the dunes, a newbie thf asked him if they could try to kill rabbits. He explained that you don't kill rabbits in the dunes, they don't give good xp. The newbie seemed kind of disappointed, but nodded and followed his advice. After all, he was a high level and knew how this game was played. He went from standard xp spot to standard xp spot, beetles, crabs, and crawlers a'many.
Our red mage eventually got to level 41, got the godsend refresh, and his parties rocketed from there. He was a melee at heart, and still wanted to melee. But he knew from experience that it wouldn't be good for the party, so he just stood back and cast spells. It wasn't much fun, but it will get him that much quicker to "the fun stuff".
After another 15 levels of casting refresh over and over, he sat in Jeuno, talking to a friend. His frustration with how things had changed were all coming out, how the game seemed so much like a job, how there weren't enough different kinds of mobs in the game, how there wasn't enough armor available at any given level, everyone always looked the same, etc, etc.
After talking about it a while with his friend, he realized he hadn't had any fun in a long, long time. He thought about it, but the need for great xp that had been drilled into his head for months and months had ruined the game for him. He sold all of his expensive equipment, and carried the millions of gil on him.
He flew out to Bastok, and wandered around gustaberg. Seeing a Rank 1 subless question marked taru warrior happily engaged in the fight of his life with a Stone Eater, he stood watching for a few minutes, /clapping and healing him to full when the brave taru defeated the worm.
Then he did two things for the newbie taru warrior.
He gave him all of the millions of gil that he was carrying.
And he told him, "never forget this is a game, make sure you are always having fun"
With those words, before the question mark could thank him or even realize what he had just been given, our hume (taru at heart) knelt, and 30 seconds later, disappeared from Vana'diel, never to return.
I'll leave you to decide which thing that our protagonist did for the newbie was more important.
But remember that although xp and advancing is important in this game, the fun is in the journey, not the destination. If you have an opportunity to find some extra fun in the journey, such as exploring a new spot or fighting some different monsters, then don't be afraid of taking it. If you're in a party where the xp is not amazing, but everyone seems friendly and happy, stick with them for a while, you might make some new friends.
After you quit the game, those will be the memories that you take with you.
As taken from: ffxi.allakhazam.com/forum.html?forum=10&mid=111854513534561796&num=12
He happily went out of the north gate from Port Bastok, onion sword in hand. In his mind, he was a bold, powerful Warrior, though sometimes his body didn't seem to quite live up to it. But he had the willpower and determination to forge ahead, fighting endless worms and bees, sometimes winning, sometimes losing, always wide-eyed at the huge, amazing world lying before him.
Eventually, he braved the long path through south and north gustaberg, stood victorious over the worms, saplings, and occasional sheep munching grass in Konschtat Highlands, and stood proudly gazing at the pinnacle of his achievements, reaching level 10.
"Wonder if I'm a high level yet?" he thought as he looked upon the impressive double-digit number. High-level or not, he was loving this new world, having a wonderful time building up his newly powerful (yet short and cute) character.
However, as he set his pint-sized newly-uber warrior to killing fiends and beasts again, an elvaan ran by on a choco. The elvaan stopped beside him, checked him, then spoke.
"u noob" the elvaan began, "why are you a taru melee? tarus are suposed to be mages!"
"But I like being a melee!" the surprised taru argued, "I like hitting things!"
"u can still fight," the elvaan continued, "but u gotta be a good race. If u dont u wont get invites, and wont get to do the fun stuff"
The little taru warrior checked the elvaan, seeing that he was a level FOURTY FIVE paladin! Wow! Guess this guy knows all about the game, I should probably take his advice.
"Ok, I guess I'll just restart as another character" the taru sighed as the elvaan's choco sped off in the distance.
The taru restarted as a hume. He figured that he had seen lots of humes, surely a hume was okay for a warrior. He didn't feel as close to or as happy with his character, but if this was what it took to do the fun stuff, then he'd do it.
So the hume went through the same path as before. This time, doing it all again, it didn't seem like as much fun, but hey, those are the breaks, he figured. He finally got to level 10 again, then past it to level 12, still happily dueling with the various evil monsters inhabiting Vana'diel.
A hume monk was running on foot past him, heading north. The hume stopped and introduced himself, then asked why the warrior was still soloing mobs.
"Isn't that what you do? I've gotten three levels in the past two days!" the warrior proudly declared.
The monk chuckled and explained that at that level, you needed to be in a party.
"Why?" asked the warrior.
"Because if you aren't in a party, you can't get good xp. If you can't get good xp, you can't become High Level. And if you can't become High Level, you can't do the fun stuff!" the monk politely explained.
"Oh, okay" the warrior replied, gazing back on the corpse of the sheep, defeating which he had considered such an achievement.
"Come on with me, we'll go get a party in the dunes!" the monk cheerfully said, running north.
The pair joined a party in the dunes, then another, and another. Sometimes the parties were full of nice people, sometimes people seemed really gruff and in a hurry.
The warrior wondered why they were even playing the game if they weren't enjoying it. Sometimes he wished that he could just go back to fighting things on his own, but he always remembered the words of the monk, that you have to get good xp and get more levels to be able to do the fun stuff.
One time in a party in the dunes, when they were killing crabs, the warrior noticed that the places where the crabs were always had tons of people there, it was always laggy with no crabs around to kill until one spawned. Besides, killing crabs got boring, especially when they did that stupid move that made you always hit for zero damage.
"Can we just kill rabbits or something?" he asked, pointing at a rodent merrily hopping along.
The whole party laughed, and the leader explained that you could get a lot more xp faster killing crabs than rabbits.
"Well, we still get xp killing rabbits right?" the warrior asked, confused.
"Look, we're killing crabs here. I'm leveling my sub and I don't have time to waste killing stupid rabbits. If you keep bugging me about this I'm going to kick you from the party." the leader gruffly replied.
"Oh, ok. Crabs it is then I guess" the warrior complied.
So, the warrior kept trucking along, getting xp, levels, doing everything that was expected of him. Getting the subjob quest, getting his choco, lots of neat new stuff came.
"Maybe they were right about having more fun at the high levels!" he thought.
Eventually he got up to level 25, got his kazham keys, and headed off to The Jungle.
One of the first parties in the jungle encountered the same thing he had happen with the crabs, too many parties and not enough mandies. After killing two mandies in 10 minutes because of the lack of supply, he had an idea.
"My friend mentioned that we could go party in Batallia at this level! It might be fun doing something different!" he suggested.
"If we aren't killing mandies, I'm leaving. I'm not here spending gil to get crappy xp" replied a ranger in the party.
The party leader, seeing the potential for the ranger to leave, quickly dismissed the idea suggested by the warrior. So the partied stayed, claiming whatever mandies they could find, making crappy xp.
The warrior continued partying, xping, sometimes getting lots of xp, sometimes not very much, but in any case moving forward. He eventually got to 30, and set out to become a Dark Knight, because that seemed like fun. He didn't really like the idea of going through all of those levels again, but at least he would be playing one of those ADVANCED jobs. Those must be more fun!
He did the same things as before, passing his level 30 warrior. Sometimes he looked back on his warrior, thinking how cool it was to be able to tank sometimes, to break out with a giant Sturmwind and save the day. But, still, he was an advanced job now, he's advanced past those simple things. Of course it would be nice if his damage had advanced, but those are the breaks.
So, he continued on, partying, getting xp, getting higher and higher level, doing the things that were required of him. Of course it wasn't fun sitting around LFG for a long time, or farming for weeks to buy the required gear, or getting kicked out of a party when a Ranger started seeking, or having to sell armor that he thought looked cool because his party required him to wear something that had an extra +1 DEX, or noone taking his suggestions seriously because he was apparently the lowest man on the totem pole in the party, but he still did everything people needed, and tried his best to be a good DRK, because he knew that eventually he would get to "the fun stuff".
So after a year of working to be acceptable to parties, doing whatever he could to get good xp, the DRK dings level 75. He's arrived! He's uber high level! Bring on the fun stuff!
Well, the problem was that it seemed that you needed to be in an HNMLS to do the "fun stuff". When he tried to apply to a few, noone seemed to need a DRK. One of his friends, a WHM who was in an HNMLS, explained to him that they needed a red mage, so if he could level up a red mage, then he could get in and do the "fun stuff".
So, our DRK became a red mage. He never really wanted to be a red mage, but if he's ever going to get to do the "fun stuff", then how else could he do it? Fortunately, he could sell his DRK gear so he didn't have to farm, so he could level quickly.
One time while his red mage was still in the dunes, a newbie thf asked him if they could try to kill rabbits. He explained that you don't kill rabbits in the dunes, they don't give good xp. The newbie seemed kind of disappointed, but nodded and followed his advice. After all, he was a high level and knew how this game was played. He went from standard xp spot to standard xp spot, beetles, crabs, and crawlers a'many.
Our red mage eventually got to level 41, got the godsend refresh, and his parties rocketed from there. He was a melee at heart, and still wanted to melee. But he knew from experience that it wouldn't be good for the party, so he just stood back and cast spells. It wasn't much fun, but it will get him that much quicker to "the fun stuff".
After another 15 levels of casting refresh over and over, he sat in Jeuno, talking to a friend. His frustration with how things had changed were all coming out, how the game seemed so much like a job, how there weren't enough different kinds of mobs in the game, how there wasn't enough armor available at any given level, everyone always looked the same, etc, etc.
After talking about it a while with his friend, he realized he hadn't had any fun in a long, long time. He thought about it, but the need for great xp that had been drilled into his head for months and months had ruined the game for him. He sold all of his expensive equipment, and carried the millions of gil on him.
He flew out to Bastok, and wandered around gustaberg. Seeing a Rank 1 subless question marked taru warrior happily engaged in the fight of his life with a Stone Eater, he stood watching for a few minutes, /clapping and healing him to full when the brave taru defeated the worm.
Then he did two things for the newbie taru warrior.
He gave him all of the millions of gil that he was carrying.
And he told him, "never forget this is a game, make sure you are always having fun"
With those words, before the question mark could thank him or even realize what he had just been given, our hume (taru at heart) knelt, and 30 seconds later, disappeared from Vana'diel, never to return.
I'll leave you to decide which thing that our protagonist did for the newbie was more important.
But remember that although xp and advancing is important in this game, the fun is in the journey, not the destination. If you have an opportunity to find some extra fun in the journey, such as exploring a new spot or fighting some different monsters, then don't be afraid of taking it. If you're in a party where the xp is not amazing, but everyone seems friendly and happy, stick with them for a while, you might make some new friends.
After you quit the game, those will be the memories that you take with you.
As taken from: ffxi.allakhazam.com/forum.html?forum=10&mid=111854513534561796&num=12
