Just going to add to Melphina's point that the HNM system was indeed garbage.
If you were a collage kid at the time you could take 30 minute powernaps between spawn windows for kings but yeah the whole system was ripe for abuse on so many levels.
Salvage alone was a god damn mess with those amazing piss poor drop rates on certain pieces of armor. A guy named Neosutra if anyone recalls him went over five-hundred Salvage runs before his Usukane 35 body dropped. That's a point of where the game isn't fun anymore but a *** chore.
75 cap FFXI was a *** mess. Too many stories of people waiting in town seeking for hours on end as a SAM DRK or DRG. Even if you had top gear you would still seek on a server with close to 1500 people on at peak times with your thumb up your ***.
I almost quit originally because the ***was boring. I eventually started making my own "good" parties mainly from interviewing people in tells & getting to know them which in turn made them more invested in willing to come out. One thing I learned was if you made a group, be polite, respectful and just don't send stupid *** tells with /party? in it.
If you actually talked to people you'd most of the time get a good group. I made a lot of friends that way whim I still talk to now.
The only thing I hated the most about building parties were the god damn *** princess bards and red mages. Some people had their *** heads so far up their *** their cheeks were resting on their tongues.
One RDM I was in a party with in Ro'meave behind the moon gate refused to cast Dispel saying it was the bard's job to do it.
*** you BOTH should be *** doing it.
PT'd once with a NIN in the nest who said he didn't need Utu:Ni to tank.
Had an RDM in Kuftal Tunnel on Robber Crabs who somehow made it into the 50s without ever having Dispel.
Guy in the nest who refused to let the PLD rest for MP saying "PLD's don't need MP to keep hate."
God my rage meter was so easy to set off years ago. lol