Finally, our own Jim “txshurricane” McLaughlin puts in his own unique experience with FFXI: a tale of a man unwilling to conform, his harrowing journey across a war-torn land, and his ultimate triumph!
"Part of the reason I don't play MMOs is because I crave "true" freedom and often don't follow the normal game progression. I especially hate grinding. When I started playing Final Fantasy XI on my PS2, I got bored with the constant fight for XP and decided to do something really unique for my character. At level 10, I left my roommate's character in Windurst and set off on a foot journey to Jeuno - I had seen a flintlock Pirate's Gun on the Jeuno market and was fixated on becoming the first Galka in Windurst with a firearm.
All the way to Jeuno I was able to avoid any fights - and thereby death - and arrived at the hub city to find that the price of the Pirate's Gun had increased by 2,000 gil. So here I was in a city where the economy was based on items that were too high-level for me to go out and gather. My roommate took pity on me and interrupted his grinding to send some gil my way; I guess he'd come to the conclusion that having a gun-toting Thief/Ranger in his party might be a good thing.
I triumphantly returned to Windurst the owner of a shiny new boomstick, and my desire to go into the plains and mountains to encounter enemies was renewed. While I was gone my buddy had worked his alchemy skills up to the point that he was able to create black powder; combining his alchemy with my blacksmithing, we generated cartridges for my gun whenever I ran dry. It was a sweet partnership while it lasted, one that garnered us attention from quite a few large guilds. And although we never joined any - we made several friends that I play with on Xbox Live to this day."- Jim (“txshurricane”)
And, of course, it wouldn't be a real community contribution without you guys! What’s been your experience with FFXI? Any great co-opportunities these guys missed, or any fun stories about playing the game with others?