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Recently just getting into a controversy about World of Warcraft and Final Fantasy XI, I decided I'd sgare my thoughts on the two, plus my thoughts on MMO's as a whole.

Final Fantasy XI

The Final Fantasy that really isn't one at the same time. I had good times while I played it. Nice graphics, very unique characters and races, yet it stayed true to past Final Fantasy titles and to MMO's as a whole. They wide selection of interchangable classes, which saved money (in this game's case), and effort, dealing with other characters unless you wanted more storage space. The battles were also fun and varied, giving fighting in a new area a completely new strategy of attacking tactics.

Though when this game messes up, they do it fantabulously. Two things really, reallly, really made me hate this beautiful game: the experience system, and the partying. Most MMO's allow one to solo until a good distance into the game, and then some. However, that is not the case in FFXI. Once you reach lvl12 or so, you go to an area known in short as "The Dunes". Pretty much there on out is partying, unless you want to farm for money or are of the Beastmaster class. Not only that, but in the later lvls, even in the "Dunes" area, you may have to wait a very, very, very long time for a party. I myself would spend a good average of three to four hours looking for a partty around lvl 40, when I finally quit this game. You could read a book, play your PSP, or do some chores in that time before you found a party. Go see a movie, eat dinner, take a shower or a nap even, then play.

The other was the experience. In most FF's, you get base experience from a monster, no questions asked. It was, theoretically, possible to level to 99 in the first area. However, in most MMO's experience is cut as you level. I'm cool with that, I've dealt with it in various forms before. However, in FFXI, they cut too much experience per level and tack too much on to grow another level. The amount you would get per level would not satisfy the need to grow another level and a good pace.

They also made the storyline appear way too late in the game. Reaching level 40, I still only knew the beginning of it. I was okay with that, but had they fixed one of those two big problems, I would totally be okay with the game. Heck, I might still be playing that over World of Warcraft even.

World of Warcraft

Right now it's the most popular MMO out there. If you're a geek and you haven't tried it yet, you're not one of the cooler ones with no soul. A nice amount of classes and races, this one sticks to most traditional MMO's rather than create a new revolution. As a character progresses, they obtain talent points to allocate to various abilities, making each character unique and adding various types of builds.

This game had what FFXI lacked, though, making it much funner and easier to play. You could solo all the way to level 60 if you wanted to, though that wouldn't be recommended as you'd miss good dungeons and such. You could farm, train, do whatever soloing.

Another great thing was the "rest" system. If you quit playing for a certain amount of time or entered an inn, your character would be rested and gain double experience from fighting, making it much easier to level and giving you an incentive to stop playing for a day or so.

It lacks a few things, though. Some quests are infinately hard to do, or just incredibly long and not worth their reward. It also lacked graphics. Switching games, I noticed a decline in graphics in WoW. Also, overall it's very laggy, making cities and some areas impossible.

MMO's in general

I enjoy MMO's and the challenges they present. Nice way to spend one's free time and such.

However, I do NOT enjoy people that bicker if I have to go away from keyboard for 10 minutes. I get this way too much from people. I tell them my parents want me to do things. I tell them they want to talk to me. I tell them they don't care if it's a game, yet people cannot grasp the fact that there is a real world out there, in which real people live. It pisses me off when I wait four hours, waiting to play and have fun, then I have to leave for 20minutes doing the dishes, then come back and, not only am I not in a party, but I'm dead and de-leveled. It sucks.

Hard.

People, realize there is life outside games, and that not everyone has two weeks free time to play this game. Realize that some parents are lazy and live off of child labor. Realize that some parents care about there children and want to know what they did in school that day. Realie that and make the world a better place.