FFXI Vs. WoW

For the uninformed that's Final Fantasy 11 VS. World Of Warcraft. After reading several reviews for FFXI on the EBgames website I got just a little pissed about what I saw. Most people will tell you that FFXI is an addictive and highly entertaining game. But there are a handful of people who will tell you that it sucks and takes too much time to play. You'll also notice that these same people are almost always WoW freaks. As someone who gave WoW a shot and chose FFXI over it, I like to think I know a little bit about both games. At least enough to make an informed decision.

So why did I choose FFXI over WoW? Well to tell you the truth the determining factor was really the people. The problem with WoW from the very beginning for me was the people playing it. The first thing I noticed when I ventured out of the Undead city I spawned in was that there were two Warlocks cussing each other out. I'm not talking about arguing, I'm talking about "I fucked your mother" or "You are an ass-munch". I've taken the liberty of correcting the spelling of these. Most of their conversation was one form of l33t speak or the other.

In general my game experience in World of Warcraft was that of displeasure. Aside from the people what else was it that I didn't like? Well let's talk about how you get EXP. At first I was more than happy that you could get EXP from doing quests rather than having to fight. I was psyched about it. While playing FFXI I had always wished there was another way to do it and wondered what it would be like. But the overall effect it has is that it makes the difficulty of leveling up go way down.

I'm the kind of person that likes feeling like I earned something, for me it was easy to get from level 1 to 10 within a couple of hours. This same process in FFXI takes around 10 hours. It's not rewarding doing 10 quests and being to level 10. Especially when those quests only involve killing monster 1 and bringing item 1 that monster 1 drops back to the quest giver. It all felt too stale.

I played both games but continued to play FFXI, it felt more enjoyable, relaxing, less tense and the community is slightly more patient. You can come across some know-it-all and elitists from time to time; But I can tell you that for the most part the community is helpful to new players. In FFXI I could be healing in the middle of the woods and some random person will walk up and start healing me. I tried shouting for help in WoW and got the reply "get some help from your mother" hardly the welcome introduction.

I tried a trial of WoW for 10 days and in that 10 days I experienced this and some other issues. As a Warlock you can unlock new creatures to summon. I chose to use an Imp for my battles. Eventually the Imp stopped responding to what I was telling it and even acted like It recognized that I issued a command but wouldn't fight any thing. Every body I spoke to in forums suggested that it was in passive mode, meaning it wouldn't fight no matter what. But I put it in aggressive and still it did nothing. I could be bludgeoned to death and my minion would sit there gleefully jumping up and down as I lay in a pool of my own blood.

This wasn't impressive to say the least. I tried flagging a GM to help but no one ever came after about 2 hours of waiting. The thing just would not work and overall this turned me off to Warcraft in a way I seldom feel turned off by games. I wondered to myself what would happen if I needed any other help. Maybe being harassed by another player, having numerous other game play glitches or got stuck in a wall somewhere. I would have no way of fixing any of these things on my own. The harassing player maybe by blacklist.

This all leads to another problem I'd like to talk about. In FFXI when you hit a monster you "claim" it. Nobody else but you can touch the monster from this point on unless they are in your party. As far as I know WoW does not have a claiming system, any nut in range of your fight can walk up and knock the crap out of whatever you are fighting. And this is regardless of their level, if this happens and the other player is levels above you, you get no EXP at all.

In general WoW seemed like it is rather deep and may have a rich world to go along with its storyline but the players hinder this experience. Most appeared to be impatient, unhelpful, and rude. True FFXI is not perfect in every aspect but it does have a way of making you feel that when you get a rare item that you've earned it. Mostly any thing in the game worth having takes hours to get and that's the way it should be.

Ultimately it depends on what kind of person you are. Do you want instant gratification? Are you a casual gamer? Go for World of Warcraft. Are you patient? Have lots of time on your hands? Will to help others? Go for Final Fantasy 11.