The End Of An Era - Tell Me Your Deep Feelings.

All began with a stone or so the legend says...for me it began when i was 18 and i could finally subscribe a flat connection. Final Fantasy xi, ONLINE! it was the dream of my childhood becoming true. I could play my passion with real people! A dream, yes...but how many dramas too! Today is the end of an era, probably is just the beginning of something else but at the moment i can't see it clearly enough. I just wanted to say thanks to SE because is giving us the chance to conclude FFXI with the dignity that it deserves, i hope. Do you remember your first party in valkurm dunes with gobs aggro everywhere? And the frustration of not finding a party for garlaige citadel? And when finally you could get an invite as thf for crawler's nest secret room just to find out that the party was done as soon as you arrived there? Doesn't seem that good, said like this nowadays...but it was, somehow it was. The game was your travel through new areas but through new people too, with emotions, dreams, goals, generosity and greediness, with envy and admiration. The game wasn't about beating Kirin or obtaining a Love torque, it was the work to arrive there, the bond with your character and with your friends. It was the dream for a Defending Ring seen on a japanese character. And it's why we're still here today, even if the game has changed in the years. Maybe it's more casual, maybe it's easier but all our emotions are still there, in those lands and in those memories and it's why we'll never forget you, Vana'Diel.

The feel's ; ; i started late ToAU, i havent been playing for about a year but imma miss it being there.

Definitely bitter-sweet. Knew this date was inevitable, but that knowledge alone does not lessen the blow of a "loss" one bit. It will be a sad, slow process of deleting all of the FFXI terms I have saved to my phone, tablet, and laptop's dictionary.....

I started FFXI when my son was 6 months old; he's 12 now. I had anticipated the game since its announcement, so I was there, day one NA PC release. The game has seen me through the end of one life and the beginning of another, better one. It's been a constant through the last decade of my life, really. I've left, once for two years when I was hardcore into WoW, but I always returned.

The end of FFXI is truly the end of an era for me. It's the game that my wife and I have loved, together. I've made many friends. I'll miss the game but honestly playing it these last few years has been more of an excuse to play with good people online than on any of the game's own merits. That's what I will miss most of all.

Honestly, i think pretty convenient the game ending soon, as someone who is in a break. This way, i dont need to go back. Ffxi is a great game but the grind part took away lots of my will to play this game. After you start making a routine the extensives grinding, the game becomes boring, playing becomes like work, and after playing you feel tired instead satisfied. Once you gets trapped in daily routine, and if youre commited to that, you start feeling bad for not to do the daily grinding, and thats an horrible feeling.

My wish would be that SE could make ffxi an offline game, reduces a lot the grinding requirements and make gil dropping from mobs like other ff games, this way i could enjoy the game and just skip the massive routines this game involves.

I'm from England, and so I wasn't able to play the game until mid 2004. At the time I was 12, too young and naive to truly understand or appreciate the game for what it was. Yet, as I got older, I kept returning and loving it more and more. It became my drug. As soon as I was 17 I began the grind - I was truly captivated by FFXI and what it had to offer - I was determined to get my first lvl 75. I first got WHM to 75 and got into my first Dynamis shell. I was so ridiculously nervous at our first event, that I developed a stomach ache and started squirming in my seat! It sounds extremely OTT but I just didn't want to let the group down!

Eventually, I discovered a love for BRD and made that my main. In 2013 I got my Daurdabla + 4 songs, and then in late 2013 I got my Ghorn. Since then I've mained BRD, and loved every aspect of it. I'm currently working on Carn, and hopefully in a couple of months I can proudly say I'll have the "Holy trinity" of BRD equipment!

I cannot believe FFXI will be coming to an end soon, though. It's something I've got to get over.. and I know I will, but it's just hard to think about right now. I guess you could say I take comfort in the fact we'll all be feeling the same way right now, and because of that we can truly sympathize with each other.

I've played many, many MMO's, but nothing has attracted my attention like FFXI. It is honestly the foundation of what makes a true MMORPG in my eyes.

I love you FFXI. <3

It'll feel like I'm forcing a pillow onto FFXI's face the day I have to uninstall it from my computer.

I started 11 maybe a bit young... But 11 has been one of the very little stability I've had. Ofc, i still play but, and i always knew this day was going to come but.... it did strike a nerve for sure.FFXI in a way for me will be, a horrifying without it... because every time i've left, i've always felt so insecure about it, and now that she is going, for better or for worse, a small part of me is dying inside. The game was one of those things, which when i just started to do stuff, regardless of what i was doing. It was Heart warming, and in a sense, that escape i so direly needed from my life, which when i started, had always been so chaotic, and none the least to say at times so incredibly *** up.

FFXI inspired me as an Artist, and as an editor. Without either of these, i certainly wouldn't be as creative as the least to say. And i definantly wouldn't be the person i am today without it. (Regardless of what you think, i think this goes for so many of the fans which play.) I wouldn't be an editor without it, as it was the first real source material i ever used.

She will always have a place in my heart, wherever i may go, or where life takes me. FFXI will be that thing, which I truly, truly believe, i will never forget....

I just... feel lost. Especially as I've come back into the game like a week ago!

I don't know what I want to do. One part of me wants to finish everything I can (there's still tons of stuff I haven't seen!), finish missions I haven't completed, finish a relic.

The other part feels like it'll be pointless (not to mention, impossible, for some stuff), to play without other players.

In the end if I had a game to go to as a refugee I'd probably do that, but all the MMO's these days are so godawfully fast paced and frenetic. FFXIV is perhaps a pretty game to play and in FF settings, but it's so fast for me, and the battle content is so boring. Possibly EVE Online, that's slow-paced. Or maybe EQ2

The big problem I have is all the friends I've made in this game, most of whom are American, I'll basically be saying goodbye to, sure I can pretend we'll regularly just chat on some VoIP service, but the stark reality is, we'll move on, I have many of them as friends on Facebook but it won't be the same.

I was 23, and in my first year of law school. I had traveled across the country to attend, leaving behind a woman I thought I was going to marry at the time. FFXI was released a few weeks before finals; I bought it, dabbled, quit to study, and started up again over the break. This would pretty much be my experience with the game over the next few years, as I finished school, got a Master's and became a law librarian, moved back home, started my first professional job, and married a woman who could not be any more different than the woman I thought I wanted when I first booted up FFXI. Play a bunch, accomplish some small goal or just have fun dithering about while listening to audiobooks or whatever, quit to focus on some personal or professional development, and come back to a place that was more or less the same as when I left it, with maybe some new meaningless goal to fret over as release from the unrelenting *** of adulthood.

I'm almost 35 now, and my life has changed dramatically; I have changed dramatically. Now that I think about it, FFXI is about the only thing about me that hasn't. It has been my hobby through this decade of transition and maturation, and though there are a lot of things left undone - I never did have the time or energy to finish that damn mythic - I really don't have any regrets. There are some parts of my life over the past decade that would have been easier if I never picked up this stupid game, but there are many others that would have been much, much harder.

So long. I might stick around past November. FFXI was never about camping Kings or running Salvage at a breakneck pace for me, after all; it was about putting on netflix or an audiobook at the end of the day and relaxing with a cup of tea and some wisteria lumber.

I've already been struggling with lack of motivation recently, and these news didn't help, that's for sure. We all knew XI would come to an end eventually, but it's still sad. 1826 days of playtime since June 2006, with only one 5 months long break. Needless to say, this game has been a huge part of my life for the last 9 years.

Like Lisotte, I too feel a little lost. But I guess I will stick around till November at least.

When my wife and I pickedup this game our kids hadn't been born yet. Last year we got to play with my oldest son (briefly, didn't want this to get in the way of his schooling), I'm glad I was able to share this with him.

He's been asking me to reactivate his character and now we may just do that. Run around the old zones for a while.

Everyone in this thread looks like they need a hug.

I Think so too Wakmidget...

MFW game ends and i successfully thwarted casuals and filthy RMT/BSTs from claiming HNMs for years:

Natenn gloating.

I cant wait to read the "Well now that its over I cheated this way threads....."

I'll mostly remember the 75 era. When hitting 75 was a massive achievement.

Staying up late to level up my black mage with random Japanese. The hell of Valkrum Dunes. Warping people out of my party when they go afk too long. Just mostly the grind of the game more than anything.

There were times when I was so caught up in FFXI that it was weird to hear my real life name, since my friends in real life played the game with me as well. We all referred to each other as our handles. It seems silly to get broken up over a game's death, yet as I write this, I am teary-eyed. I don't want it to end, but as everyone else has said, we knew it would come eventually. It feels like I'm losing my home.

I'll tell you right now if you're curious, although it would probably be incredibly tame compared to other people.

Sad to see some amazing friends/people leave but happy I was able to meet them.

The picture above sort of sums up how I feel. I started playing when I was 16. Now I'm turning 27 in a month, and leaving this game sort of feels like it fits because I got it for my 16th birthday.

Kudos, FFXI.

inviting random non ls members to party and d2ing them right before windows or when they show up to help enemy groups.

I'm going to ride this magnificent... although at times horriblely slow, Pony to the sunset... :)

Been a huge part of my life moved countries met my wife on the game had a son, gutted we probably have maybe 15 months left, just not sure now if I can play anymore, knowing what's coming around the corner. But also I'm happy because like said this game changed my real life for the better. So I think the game for a lot.

Going to miss this game a lot. I still have a lot of the soundtracks on my workout playlists.

When I first started this game, I got dragged in deep. My last summer of high school, right before college, TOAU had just come out and I had been playing since October (2005).

I went to my grandma's house in CA. Los *** Angeles. This game had me stuck so deep that for the entire 3 months, I only left her house 6 times. I would play the game anywhere from 12-18 hours a day. I gained 30+ lbs easily; went a month and a half w/o putting on a pair of shoes...

It was probably the worst thing ever, but that said, it was the most memorable summer of my life

Dammit Kyren that made me cry a second T-T
But yeah started in August when i was 16 :D i'm now 26 and in august i'll be around for 10 years... Me and my now husband started playing and we'll finish playing together <3
I'm riding it out though, I'm giving this game one more glorious year min. , and i'm gonna stop trying to grind for the best of the best gear and just go out full swing and do what i still wonna do but never got to experience due to always being abit more casual in this game :) (mainly the older content)...

Don't forget that the very moment you d2'd that party member for endless afk, you get a /tell the second they arrived at homepoint saying "why you d2 me?, i was making dinner rq and just sat down at my screen" lol

My worry is, as someone else who thinks "well at least I'll have time to do all the stuff I couldn't do before," what about all the content that requires multiple people, either to enter the battle, or requires multiple people to complete it due to difficulty or whatever?

For example, a reason you might want to stay playing is to work at a Mythic while trying to chat with whoever you can, but if you hadn't done Einherjar before, how are you going to do it solo?