/Sigh

I joined my first high level linkshell recently called Avatarawakening.

For all those WoW players who are reading this, a linkshell is a guild, except in order to make it more Final Fantasy they made it explainable in-game! A Linkshell is an pearl earring you equip that allows you to talk to people around the world who have a pearl that comes from the same "shell". The "shell" is held by the owner of the linkshell and the owner can upgrade "pearl" holders to "sack" holders (lol) so they have a sack of pearls to give away instead of just one pearl (basiclly a guild moderator). Fun huh?! And you can pick the color of your Linkshell to almost anything!

Anyways, I've finally been able to talk to people who play FFXI regularly ... regularly! I don't just talk to a bunch of random angry people bitching about how to play the game. I think the best part is that everyone in the LS must be a lvl 70+ Summoner which means everyone has to like SMN at least a little :-) yay! It's a lot of fun and now I can do things regularly that I couldn't do on a regular basis (such as killing Fenrir, the omega avatar, without losing a million times). I just hope that my casual playing style doesn't get me kicked out or anything :-( I don't play every single day all the time because (NO OFFENCE) I have a life outside of the game that requires more time than FFXI every day.

I feel bad that I have been playing FFXI more than WoW recently (yes I play both... don't eat my babies). They both have advantages and disadvantages. I just enjoy FFXI more often than WoW and on occasion WoW is a nice break from FFXI. The only trouble is that ALL of my friends IRL play WoW (well, the gamer ones). This means that if I play FFXI I miss out on playing with them. My brother (Ars in game) plays FFXI with me regularly and I can count on him to play with me whenever we can. It makes FFXI a good time. In WoW, most of my friends have launched themselves into high level, endgame material that, as a lvl 20 something Priest who needs to be babied along, can't even think about.

At least in FFXI there is the new level sync system (it lowers everyones level to the target players level in the party and your higher level equipment DEF and abilities are reduced to appropriate stats). I really enjoy playing with other people. In WoW, the solo stuff is overwhelming to me and I feel like I'm dragging my friends around to say "Kill this" or "I need to get here". I don't like using people for my benefit and I enjoy the team effort involved. Too many times I've been run through a dungeon that someone murders for my pleasure of looting the corpses for low level gear I'll just chuck in a few levels. It isn't really fun at all :-( and I don't want to take time away from their high level stuff to help the level 20 something Priest who can't even solo a mob their own level (it's my own damn fault for liking a job that can't solo lol).

Oh well. I guess the real problem is that all my friends have characters too high of a level for me to play with. Dilemma: Play with level 60-80 friends who murder mobs instantly or play solo for the challenge and die a million times alone in the wilderness.

Death is another thing that confuses me. In WoW, death does not exist. You die, you come back, you die again. In FFXI, you die and you lose a significant amount of exp (you can even de-level). It makes battles more intense and meaningful when your party survives an epic battle or gets wiped by a tough monster. The whole "Opps" factor involved with WoW death makes me angry sometimes, but it makes gameplay run smoothly so you can't really complain I guess.

The challenge is what I play for and WoW just doesn't seem to make it for me. I mean even my summons, the avatars, were meaningful to get. I remember fighting each avatar alone and defeating each one just to be able to summon them. That was epic and it felt good. Each job in FFXI has it's own challenges for everyone's unique play style.

I don't really want to rant on WoW. Like I said before, I play both, but I guess I mainly play WoW to stay in touch with the people who are just a few buildings or miles away. But is it worth it to play a game I don't whole heartedly enjoy just to have a conversation with someone? My game time suggests a resonable answer. Oh well. I'll still be doing both considering my significant other loves WoW. :-) And I do enjoy the unlimited character creation. I'm sure once school starts I'll be playing WoW much more frequently with my brother busy all the time anyways.

/sigh