Cycopl

About FFXI

Well, I got FFXI, finally. This is what I've been waiting for, this is basically what I got the new computer for. And I'm extremely impressed. I haven't even made it past level 5 yet, but there's something about the game... There's just so much stuff to explore. I ran around aimlessly for an hour before getting hit for 260 by a cactuar, but I was having fun just running by the giant bad guys and looking at the environments. It's a really nice looking game.

The PlayOnline interface kind of scared me at first. It seemed like just an overcomplicated gateway into the game. Kind of like Microsoft's ZONE client with Asheron's Call. But I eventually realized that the Playonline client is more than just a gateway to the game, it's a message center and email center and subscription center all rolled up into one. It adds a new level of interactivity to the game, because friends that you add in your playonline client are added within the game as well. When you log out of the game, you can send your friends messages through the playonline client, or email through their playonline email address that's created when you register. Mine's cycopl@pol.com, go ahead and email me. It really seems to me like a revolutionary step in the MMORPG genre. Future games should definitely learn from this.

I started a Taru warrior... and I'm pretty happy with it, even though he's pretty weak at the moment. I'm hoping that he'll get much beefier when I gain him some levels. I've got it all planned out though, I want to play warrior until level 30. Then I'll do the samurai quest, and make samurai my main class and warrior my sub-class. Then, once I get samurai to 30, I'm going to do the dragoon quest, and make dragoon my main class and samurai my subclass. This might take a long long time, and I might not even go through it like that, but this is currently what I have in mind. Leveling to 30 as warrior so I can have a good subclass for samurai once I switch, and also so I have a good sword skill when I switch to samurai. That'll make the early samurai levels MUCH easier. Dragoon is a different story altogether though, because I'll have to switch to polearm weapons. I'm assuming it'll almost be like starting over completely, except I'll have high skills in stuff like evade and parry, so it'll be a little easier.

So yeah. I like FFXI. People should put suggestions for Linkshell names in the comments.