Why Did You Start 11 And Why Do You Still Play?

What made people first play ff11 and what they enjoyed about it and why do they still play? Is it for the challenge , to get gear , to hang out with friends, or just because been playing so long dunno what would do with your time otherwise or some other reason?

Myself i started because friends wanted me to try it and because i grew up playing the FF series all the way from the first one. Now i'm not sure why, maybe for few friends who still around and simply been playing so long dunno what be doing with time if stopped.

Cheap long lasting entertainment

I started playing FFXI because of someone that was really close to me at the time recommended it as something to do together. It was my first MMO and I was completely in awe at a game that allowed me to play with other people~ I haven't played in a few months but I think I might start it back up again tomorrow-ish beacuse I honestly get bored with playing 1-player games without someone there to chat with while sharing the same gaming experience.

I started, cuz I had nothing better going on outside of work, and RL friends played at the time.

Now, all RL friends quit, but now I'm rich, and looking for a FFXI woman to spend my money on, but no takers. Lots of time invested, and no interest in other games while I'm having fun here.

i played because i found out pretty much the entire group of freinds i made during a deployment played and were planning to resume when we got back, so i got peer pressured into it -_-

now

i play because of inertia, momentum, and general addiction

Broke up with a girlfriend and needed something to fill the "void".

Edit: no idea why I still play, dont really have the time for long stints anymore

I started when my husband bought me the game as a present. It was one of the first games I had tried, and the first rpg.

I keep playing for several reasons. For one, it's something fun that my husband and I do together. For two, I've made friends playing and I'm not ready to give those friends up. Even the ones who have left, and even if they don't come back. If they change their mind anytime soon, I'll be here for them. For three, even with the monthly fee, it's much cheaper entertainment than going out to dinner, going out to movies, going out to the bowling allies or casinos around here. For four, it's fun!

out of everyone posting so far

you're the only active player who sounds like they still have fun

I have fun. Sometimes. But alot of that has more to do with friends and such. Which is part of the reason I plan on moving servers.

My brother got the game, I thought anything he did was cool. He let me play. He got bored of it after he found out a party dissolves when you log off. I didn't. I don't play anymore simply due to funds, but I want to. :(

Still PLay cause of these god aweful Relic Trials -.-;

FF was cool. MMOs were cool. I wanted to make a bronze dagger. That turned into wanting to level NIN and realizing I'm a noob with not enough gil. Then I leveled Bard followed by Samurai. All of a sudden I have Maat's Cap and a second account with BRD and RDM at 75 that I leveled myself. FFXI has always been about gear/nms/rage to me. Haven't really been playing since level cap increases but ya, got like 2 85's. I don't really enjoy playing unless I'm low manning on NIN. /end story.

tl;dr bronze dagger ruined my life.

inb4 Trying to hard.
inb4 Flion's alt.
inb4 Bronze Dagger meme.

My brothers and bf have played it for many years. Some bad things happened and I needed something to take my mind off of them, and they said the game was good for that. I wasn't really into it at first but I grew to like it, the people, and the fact that it really did keep my mind off things.

Now, I still play for the people and to keep shitty things out of my head. Also, a great thing to play with my bf. It's something we can do by ourselves, but is just as fun doing it together. (inb4sexjokes)

/putsawaysexjoke

I started playing it because I'm a huge fan of the series, and 2 or 3 members from my old forum played it lots and posted screenshots and stuff.

I got it for my 16th birthday and installed it and had no idea what I was doing but it was incredibly fun, and that POL music still strikes an awesome feeling inside me. Then I stopped playing for a year or so until I convinced 2 rl friends to play it too, so we played it using Skype for a while. Then I gave it a years break as my friend lost the internet and playing games is just so much more fun with RL friends. Then when he got his internet back, my other friend started playing it so I renewed my subscription and moved to Shiva. I played it for 3-4 years mainly for the social interaction and fun. Gear was never really the main reason for me. I much preferred having fun.

I'd play it if I could get that sense of fun back, but it's just lost on me now. I'm probably one of the few people who still actively got all the event stuff lol.

Oh and I love level grinding. Call me a masochist, but I wish I could level normally and not in Abyssea.

Started because it looked interesting and I've played all of the Final Fantasy games previous, as well as many other online games.

Continue to play because I still really enjoy it, I love the social aspect, I love RDM, and the Mithra :3

get some sleep!

the game would be a lot more fun if there were still shells around for weekend warriors :/

Lol I had a nap, I'm good, I'll sleep on the train :D got the quiet compartment in this eventuality lol.

One of the things I like most about the game at the moment is that you don't really need a large linkshell for anything unless you're dead set on a handful of things such as AV/PW etc.

To cyber with tarus.

I don't even have a shell any more lol.

The only thing I've been doing is lowmanning WOE (mainly sac pulling as brd >.>) and Lowmanning some abyssea NM's like Khalamari.

now if only i had a not large ls

well

i do i suppose

now if only anyone still logged into it >.>

I've just been soloing/duoing anything and everything I can think of and bringing a few friends along if it's something which requires more manpower. Good fun!

I initially skipped over XI when it was very first released coz I had a ***pc and I really wasn't into the whole idea (heavens knows why), but a few years later I started dating a girl and XI was all she ever talked about so I, of course, had to play. (2004)

We both quit after 3 years of playing when we just really didn't have anymore time with the new rugrat. (2007)

In 09 a new bloke came on at my job and we were talking about gaming one night as he'd just bought a new laptop and he went on about XI and I told him I used to play and he invited me back with his LS so I got a mediocre laptop and got back into it on Kujata server. Around new years though tons of the good friends I'd made (and my co-worker) had quit and I really had maybe 3 people left who I talked to, I had randomly made an elf on Titan to see what it was like over there, and moved my main there as well.

/book

FFXI was my first MMO, I bought it for the hell of it because I was a fan of the series. Once the PS2 version was released and me and my boyfriend could play together, we were hooked for the next 2 years.

From a "beating the game" prospective I still play because I'm probably one of the slowest progressors in the history of ffxi, there's tons of missions, jobs and crafts I'd like to finish.

The main reason that I still play though is that this game has just charmed the hell out of me. I love the zones,the music, the monsters, silly events/event items, wasting gil furnishing my mog house <3, fishing, getting killed by fun mobs with my friends, the "thrill" of snagging a NM (I'm lame I even get excited over the ones that don't really matter xD), ect.

I'm not addicted like I was years ago but I think I will defintely be one of those people on the last server when everybody else has already beaten xiv and moved onto the next online reincarnation of xi >_>;

I feel that way too, alot of blokes from old LS have left for XIV but the majority of us still say piss on it.